In an excellent survey article, the authors discuss many of the ethical problems confronting psychiatry today. Psychiatric intervention is justified only with the patient's informed consent, except in rare instances. The article deals with the right to treatment, the right to no treatment, the rights of patients in general, commitment procedures, various aspects of behavior control, the issues of privacy and confidentiality, and the place of psychiatry in the ever-changing moral structure of the society. Included is a most useful bibliography.