Ethics in Psychiatry

Hanfried Helmchen was Director of the psychiatric clinic at the Free University of Berlin (FUB) from 1971 to 1999 and is now Professor Emeritus. His areas of work included epilepsy, depression, clinical therapy research, ethics in psychiatry, history of psychiatry, mental disorders in old age, and dementia. He took part in the Berlin Aging Study (BASE). He served in 1979/80 as President of the German Society of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience (DGPN), was elected Member of the Leopoldina National Academy of Sciences in 1993, and is also Member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. He was Advisor to the World Health Organization. From 1998 to 2005 he served as Chairman of the Committee of Medical Ethics of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry.

Prof. Dr. Norman Sartorius is described as one of the most prominent and influential psychiatrists of his generation. He specialized in neurology and psychiatry and also holds a Ph.D. in psychology. In his long and successful career, he has engaged in clinical work, research, and teaching at the universities of Zagreb, London and Geneva, among others. He was also Head of the Mental Health Department of the World Health Organization (WHO) and President of the World Psychiatric Association and of the European Psychiatric Association. He is now committed to policy matters important for the future of psychiatry and engaged in programs related to the reduction of stigma of mental illness, the management of comorbidity of mental and physical illness and education of psychiatry.

Jakov Gather studied medicine and philosophy and is currently Head of the independent interdisciplinary research group SALUS ("The ethics of coercion. Striking a balance between autonomy, well-being and security in psychiatric practice"; funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research) at the Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Preventive Medicine and the Institute for Medical Ethics and History of Medicine of the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB). Furthermore, he serves as Clinical Psychiatrist at the RUB's Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Preventive Medicine and the LWL Forensic Psychiatric Hospital Herne. He is Member of the commission "Ethics and Law" of the German Association for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics (DGPPN) and coordinates the working group "Ethics in Psychiatry" based at the German Academy of Ethics in Medicine (AEM).