The curious case of the advance directive in psychiatry

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

As discussions around the Mental Health Care Bill 2013 gain pace, one aspect of the bill, which is the Advance Directive, has perhaps not been discussed enough. The present essay is an attempt to explore different aspects of the advance directive in psychiatry, to understand the implications better. The article attempts to look at the conceptualization of the advance directive, questions regarding implementation, and possible unintended consequences. In doing so, it interrogates the larger question of ideology that drives the concept of the advance directive in psychiatry.