anosognosia

This is snipped from On insight and what not to do to people in pain ... 

I am placing it in a separate post because I sometimes need to link to a short definition 

Brit miracle cure for anosognosia?"Service user's right to reject a diagnosis..not be regarded as..lack of insight" http://t.co/pglNLniYgy …
— Ivana Fulli (@DrFulli) December 3, 2014

In our part of the world, "blasphemy" does not justify force or persecution in a religious context. Yet in a context of mental help, "anosognosia" is in the ICD-10 and justifies manipulation, violence, forced medication and deprival of human dignity and civil rights. Here is a definition from the Treatment Advocacy Center:

Anosognosia - "lack of insight" or "lack of awareness" - is believed to be the single largest reason why individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder do not take their medications. A result of anatomical damage to the brain, it affects approximately 50% of individuals with schizophrenia and 40% of individuals with bipolar disorder. When taking medications, awareness of illness improves in some patients.

In a frame where lack of insight is a "result of anatomical damage to the brain", a kind and sincere wish to help justifies force, threats, humiliation or just plain ignoring the patient's opinions because one already knows that they are talking nonsense because one knows that they have a mental illness.

And when experts in this frame also know that they think in psychological terms and respect social factors and do not deny trauma and meaning, we get an always-wrong situation: