Psychiatric Ethics (3rd ed.): Edited by Sidney Bloch, Paul Chodoff, and Stephen A. Green,  Oxford University Press, 1949,  550 pp., $59.50, paper. $110.00, hard cover.

Psychiatric Ethics was first published in 1981. Now after eighteen years Oxford University Press has released this standard in the 3rd edition; the 2nd edition was published in 1991. Much more than a survey of the field, Drs. Bloch, Chodoff, and Green once again bring together a distinguished panel of contributors who have woven together an in-depth and exceptionally readable work.

Like the field of medical ethics itself, this edition is a vibrant evolution of the critical issues facing the mental health profession and all that interface with it. This may seem to some a sweeping statement; however, this masterful text delivers and then some. The last edition of Psychiatric Ethics opened with the question, “Why a book on psychiatric ethics?” Anyone familiar with this now classic text needn't raise this question; everyone else will quickly and easily answer the question for him- or herself by simply perusing the book's table of contents.

Structurally, the book is organized as one might envision a graduate school course in psychiatric ethics. Like the first two incarnations of Psychiatric Ethics, a broad array of topics is presented, covering the central ethical issues facing the contemporary psychiatrist. Beginning with a historical perspective, the reader is moved through the philosophical underpinnings of the field into an analysis of what makes our profession a profession, namely a corpus of expertise together with a binding core of ethics and values. The editors next present a series of chapters topically familiar perhaps to most psychiatrists when thinking about “ethics,” namely, the use and abuse of psychiatry, boundary violations, and issues pertaining to the broad area of confidentiality. Familiar as these topics may seem there is much to learn within these thoughtful chapters. Other areas included address the ethical dimensions of the specialty areas within the psychiatric profession, including child and adolescent, geriatric, addiction, and forensic psychiatry