The field of ethics has been around for millennia. There are several prominent psychological theories on morality, and every religion of the world deals with ethics and morality. So how did I chose the approach I take on these three “small” topics related to ethical consultation in therapy?
Beginning with psychological theories, I found Jonathan Haidt’s moral foundations theory to be most compatible with psychotherapy because it emphasizes moral intuitions and emotions (emotions are central in therapy), it uses everyday language (harm, fairness, etc.), and it has been demonstrated to apply across cultural groups. The basic idea is that we process moral issues via five central intuitions and emotions: care/harm, fairness/cheating, loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion, and sanctity/degradation. Therapists can listen for clients’ expressions of these moral emotions, and we can be attuned to them in ourselves.
In terms of defining the ethical realm in therapy, I opted to focus on the dimension of avoiding harm to others, as opposed to other traditions such as virtue ethics and deontological (duty) ethics. The reasons are that this moral domain is valid across all cultural groups that have been studied, that the other four of Haidt’s moral foundations can be seen as related to avoiding harm, and that particularly when therapists are going to challenge a client in ethical terms, we’d better be on firm footing—justifying our approach based on the likely harm to someone in the client’s life.
Finally is the question of ethics and religion. For many people, religion and morality are inseparable. However, in our pluralistic culture where clients and therapists often do not share the same religious framework, it made sense to deal with ethics in therapy aside from religious language and religious traditions. That’s another reason to focus on the ethics of harm/care, because every religious tradition recognizes this aspect of moral life, even if they differ on issues such as authority and sanctity.
Something important: I don’t see my choices here as constraining or definitive for everyone who wants to explore ethical consultation in therapy. There are other models and theories from the social sciences and philosophy, and some therapists may want to connect the religious dimension of ethics in their work. Let a thousand flowers bloom—this is just the garden that I planted in my book, and why I chose these particular stems.