The vulnerable therapist : practicing psychotherapy in an age of anxiety / Helen W. Coale.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Coale, Helen W.

Series:

Advances in psychology and mental health

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Psychotherapists--Professional ethics.

Psychotherapists.

Psychotherapy--Moral and ethical aspects.

Psychotherapy.

Psychotherapists--Job stress.

Physical Description:

xv, 272 pages ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Haworth Press, [1998]

Summary:

The Vulnerable Therapist will capture your interest with its broad systemic approach, contextual analysis, fascinating case studies, and anecdotal material. You'll see the need for improvement at the institutional and individual levels of the psychotherapy professions. Specifically, you'll read about: social, cultural, and contextual aspects of the crisis of meaning in psychotherapy, professional responses to the crisis of meaning that create ethical dilemmas for individual practitioners, the power of language to construct and control mental health beliefs, psychotherapy's core constructs and ethical "buzzwords", psychological and legal risks in practicing psychotherapy today, specific problems with licensing boards and other complaint channels, problems with rule-based ethics, alternative models for creating ethical therapist-client relationships.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Introduction: Ethical Contexts, Ethical Rules 1

What Is Context? 2

The Relevance of Context to Professional Ethics 4

Problems with Rule-Based Ethics 6

The Impossibility of Functioning Ethically in an Unethical Profession 13

Chapter 2 The Crisis of Meaning in Psychotherapy and the Vulnerable Therapist 17

Loss of Meaning 17

The Gods of Individualism, Narcissism, and the Marketplace 19

The Themes of Victimhood and Survivalism 21

From Individual to Social Pathology 23

The Mental Health Professions' Response to the Crisis of Meaning 24

The Need for Transformation in the Mental Health Professions 30

Chapter 3 Social Constructionism and Its Implications for the Mental Health Professions 35

The Evolution of Social Constructionism 35

Psychotherapists: Latecomers to Social Constructionism 37

Implications of Social Constructionism for Psychotherapy 42

Chapter 4 Language: Some Theoretical Considerations 45

Language: The Meaning Maker 45

Classical Theories of Language 47

The Social Construction of Language 48

Categories, Prototypes, and Idealized Cognitive Models 48

Language Development in Children 50

The Power to Define Good and Bad, Sane and Mad 51

Chapter 5 Diagnosis: The Power to Name 55

The Social Control Functions of Diagnosis 55

Professional Resistance to Feminist Revisions of Diagnosis 58

Institutional Self-Preservation: A Hidden Agenda of DSM 61

The Accommodation of Other Disciplines to the DSM 64

Chapter 6 Social Constructionism's Challenge to Traditional Mental Health Beliefs: Some Additional Examples 69

Ideas About the Self 70

Ideas About Child Development and Developmental Stages 74

Ideas About Feelings 80

Ideas About Intelligence 82

Ideas About Family 84

Chapter 7 The Language of Professional Ethics: Some Buzzwords 89

Touch in Psychotherapy 89

Boundaries 95

Dual Roles 101

The Risks of Risk Management 106

Chapter 8 Legal Vulnerability: Context 109

Incidence of Complaints Against Psychotherapists 109

Factors Contributing to the Legal Vulnerability of Therapists 115

Chapter 9 Licensing Boards, Malpractice Actions, and Profiles of Complaints 133

Licensing Boards 133

Malpractice Actions 138

Profiles of Complaints 141

The Mental Health Professions as Incestuous Systems 149

Chapter 10 Psychological Vulnerability 151

Values, Beliefs, and Practices 152

Practice Context 158

Life-Cycle Issues 159

Sudden and Unpredictable Crises and Events 163

Unique Aspects of Therapist History, Character, and Emotional Life 163

Increased Psychological Vulnerability in a Context of Anxiety and Litigiousness 165

Chapter 11 Alternatives to Traditional Models 169

Feminist Ethics 169

Social Constructionist Ethics 176

The Ethics of Communal Welfare 178

Ethics by Character of the Therapist 183

Chapter 12 Toward an Ethic of Multiplicity and Mutuality 187

Honoring All Voices 187

Mutuality 200

Chapter 13 Toward an Ethic of Care, Compassion, and Character 207

Care and Compassion in a 1990s Context 207

Care and Compassion: Essential Components in the Client-Therapist Relationship 210

Care and Compassion: The Self of the Therapist 211

Care and Compassion for Colleagues 220

The Character of the Therapist 224

Chapter 14 Toward Transformation 227

Problems in Our Current Approach to Ethics 227

Alternative Ethical Models 228

The Ethical Therapist 229

Toward an Ethical Perspective at the Institutional Level 230.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 237-257) and index.

ISBN:

0789004801

0789001799

OCLC:

37574083