ABSTRACT
This chapter explains some important value conflicts in modern Western culture concerning the handling of human problems. It compares two occupational roles, two professions: that of the lawyer and that of the “mental doctor.” Although these occupational roles are rooted in traditional modes of thinking and evaluation that differ widely, their incumbents are co-operating or competing in attempts to solve the same, or very similar, types of problems. The legal handling of a human problem consists in “answering” a specific act or omission with a specific type of reaction. Between the deviance and the legal reaction there is assumed to exist a relationship of justice. Legal justice is achieved by disregarding a mass of “irrelevant” factors on the part of the actor and on the part of the reacting legal agency. Behind the mental health approach there are probably certain value elements which are almost completely dissociated from concepts of justice.
