Medical Ethics, Interpersonal Relations - Psychology, Mental Health Services & Personnel, Ethics & Moral Philosophy - Applied - Business & Professional, Psychotherapy, Relationships - Interpersonal, Characteristics & Qualities - Self-Improvement

Soul Searching

Name: Soul Searching
Author: W.J. Doherty
ISBN: 9780465020683

by W.J. Doherty

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Overview

Soul Searching shows how therapy can be a powerful healing force when clients face moral dilemmas around issues such as divorce, commitment to one's children, fairness to other people, honesty, and community service. With numerous case vignettes, William J. Doherty shows how therapy can have a moral component and still be sensitive to the diverse backgrounds and values of clients. He tells consumers what signs to look for in a morally sensitive therapist, and he describes the three core virtues therapists need to practice good therapy. In addition, he tells of an exciting new movement in which practitioners all over the country are joining together to form therapy forums to pursue the re-moralization of psychotherapy. Soul Searching is both a powerful critique of contemporary psychotherapy and a bold proposal for a more enlightened way for therapists to deal with issues of moral responsibility.

About the Author, W.J. Doherty

Susan H. McDaniel, Ph.D., is professor and director of the Division of Family Programs in Psychiatry and co-director of Psychosocial Programs in Family Medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. She lives in Rochester, New York.Jeri Hepworth, Ph.D., is professor, associate residency director, and director of Behavioral Sciences in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center. She lives in Willington, Connecticut. William J. Doherty, Ph.D., is professor of Family Social Science and director of the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at the University of Minnesota. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Psychotherapists since Freud, in Doherty's biting assessment, have overemphasized individual self-fulfillment while paying insufficient attention to the patient's moral values, accountability and family and community responsibilities. The psychologist-director of the University of Minnesota's marriage and family therapy program, Doherty draws on his own clinical practice in this important critique. Going against the prevailing wisdom, he proposes that therapists should consciously influence clients to change their behavior in light of the moral issues involved. Among the illustrative case histories are a recently divorced father who is considering abandoning his children; a depressed, anorexic, suicidal young man who needs emotional distance from his controlling, intrusive mother; and a couple coping with the strain of caring for their developmentally delayed, four-year-old daughter. Included are guidelines for those seeking a morally sensitive therapist. Apr.

Library Journal

Doherty Medical Family Therapy, BasicBks., 1992 raises concerns about our therapeutic culture's promotion of individual self-interest over interpersonal responsibility. Therapists of the past, presupposing that their clients had a sense of moral responsibility, set about to liberate their patrons from morally rigid upbringings. Yet, through changing times, psychotherapists have continued to emphasize self-fulfillment over social responsibility while at the same time claiming to be value-free. Doherty advocates that psychotherapists recognize the claims of the larger society on them; therapists, he says, have an obligation to serve as moral consultants to their clients, raising questions about the effects of clients' behavior on others. On a practical level, Doherty explains how therapists can introduce moral considerations to their clients and discusses the virtues he believes therapists should affirm after abandoning a morality-free approach. While the argument is well presented, the specter of mental health practitioners as "ethicists" is sure to raise hackles among therapists and their critics alike. A controversial book recommended for large psychology collections.-Bonnie Hoffman, Stony Brook, N.Y.

Booknews

Doherty (director, Marriage and Family Therapy Program, U. of Minnesota) shows hows therapy can be a powerful healing force when clients face moral dilemmas around issue such as divorce, commitment to children, and honesty. He describes a movement of practitioner therapy forums to pursue the re-moralization of psychotherapy, calling for therapists to recognize their moral responsibilities to each other and communities, and tells consumers what to look for in a morally sensitive therapist. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)