[Medical ethics problems in psychiatry].

A humanitarian attitude and ethical convictions have contributed much to the development of psychiatry. In the present time these convictions have been codified, for instance in the declaration of the World Federation of Psychiatry in Hawaii 1977. In more detail the author discusses 3 areas where ethical considerations have special significance: the scope of psychotherapy, psychosurgery, and the use of psychiatric means to suppress and discipline politically dissident persons.