Psychiatry as a Nurturing Practice

Abstract

In making science within practices subject to human judgements, the question arises as to where objectivity within practices resides. To answer this question I will elucidate MacIntyre’s view of objectivity within practices, which I argue is related to fabricating practices (using Hannah Arendt’s categories of labour, work and action to arrive at the distinction between nurturing and fabricating practices). I then argue for a parallel kind of objectivity for nurturing practices to that which, I argue, MacIntyre elaborates for fabricating practices, an objectivity based on meaningful use of the word ought. Next I demonstrate how this kind of objectivity can work in practice, taking an example from a publication of the Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance and from real controversies in the practice of psychiatry: the controversy of the named person in the 2003 Mental Health (Care and Treatment) Act (Scotland) and controversy over the composition of mental health tribunals.