Blaming Victims

Abstract

Abstract This chapter addresses the question of whether victims of mental disorders or physical diseases should be blamed for their problems. It explores how an integrated, moral-therapeutic perspective encourages acceptance of responsibility for health without unfair and destructive forms of blame. The discussion is structured around four health-related contexts: (1) preventing sickness, (2) assigning financial liabilities for health care costs, (3) giving meaning to suffering, and (4) interacting with health care professionals. What we say about blame in one of these contexts is relevant to but does not dictate what we say in other contexts.