Negotiating Reality: Notes on Power in the Assessment of Responsibility

This paper illustrates the difference between absolute and social conceptions of responsibility, by employing the perspective of the sociology of knowledge. Comparing the degree of shared awareness and the organization of the format of the transaction in initial psychiatric and legal interviews, propositions showing the relationship between the power and authority of the interactants, and the resultant shared definition of the client's responsibility, are suggested. The implications of these points for psychiatric and legal policy, and for social science research are discussed in the conclusion.