Values and Ethics in Family Therapy

This article is an introduction to this special issue on values and ethical issues in family therapy. The author discusses the historical context for the rising interest in these issues in family therapy, describes the rationale for this special issue, and presents a framework for analyzing the core values of the prominent models of family therapy. The ethical debate over use of paradoxical techniques in family therapy is used as an illustration of a values clash between different models of family therapy.     

Gender, Power, and Relationship Ethics In Family Therapy Education

Awareness and sensitivity about gender issues have central positions in family therapy education. Traditionally gender relationships have been treated as either a reflection of cultural values and norms or as a dynamic of the way that men and women deal with the other sex. This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study that examines the meaning and enactment of gender issues in the supervisory process in family therapy. Based on that study, the authors developed a strategy for raising issues of gender equity in clinical training and describe the effects of that strategy on one practicum.Professor of Family and Child Sciences and the director of the Interdivisional Program in Marriage and Family Therapy at Florida State UniversityAn associate professor of Family and Child Sciences and the co-director of the Family Policy and Research Unit in the Family Institute at Florida State University     

荀子的家庭伦理思想研究

荀子的家庭伦理思想吸纳了先秦儒家伦理中许多合理内容 ,特别是发展了孔孟的家庭伦理思想 ,具有系统性、科学性和可操作性等特点 ,是我国伦理史上一宗宝贵遗产。他关于赡养老人、教育子女以及家庭成员间道德权利与义务的思想极具现代价值。     

Hidden in Plain View: Feminists Doing Engineering Ethics, Engineers Doing Feminist Ethics

How has engineering ethics addressed gender concerns to date? How have the ideas of feminist philosophers and feminist ethicists made their way into engineering ethics? What might an explicitly feminist engineering ethics look like? This paper reviews some major themes in feminist ethics and then considers three areas in which these themes have been taken up in engineering ethics to date. First, Caroline Whitbeck’s work in engineering ethics integrates considerations from her own earlier writings and those of other feminist philosophers, but does not use the feminist label. Second, efforts to incorporate the Ethic of Care and principles of Social Justice into engineering have drawn on feminist scholarship and principles, but these commitments can be lost in translation to the broader engineering community. Third, the film Henry’s Daughters brings gender considerations into the mainstream of engineering ethics, but does not draw on feminist ethics per se; despite the best intentions in broaching a difficult subject, the film unfortunately does more harm than good when it comes to sexual harassment education. I seek not only to make the case that engineers should pay attention to feminist ethics and engineering ethicists make more use of feminist ethics traditions in the field, but also to provide some avenues for how to approach integrating feminist ethics in engineering. The literature review and analysis of the three examples point to future work for further developing what might be called feminist engineering ethics.     

Third‐Order Thinking in Family Therapy: Addressing Social Justice Across Family Therapy Practice

We contend that the field of family therapy is undergoing a notable shift from second‐ to third‐order thinking. We offer theoretical support and examples to demonstrate how third‐order thinking provides a framework for integrating heightened sociocultural attunement into family therapy practice. We discuss the importance of third‐order thinking relative to being prepared to invite families into third‐order change. Finally, we offer a case example to show specific guidelines for third‐order practice.     

做伦理学：《哪吒之魔童降世》与“自我决断论”的迷思

《哪吒之魔童降世》是一部"成长文学"主题的动画作品。它高扬一种"伦理唯我论"的伦理信念,将一个充实"他人"、因而难免存在偏见的社会世界全然视为主体能动性建构的障碍和陷阱,倡导和呼吁一种"自我决断"的生活主张,并将这种生活主张视为卓越人生得以成就的哲学基础。但这种伦理唯我论式的生活主张只是一个"神话"。尽管卷入由"他人"所组成的意见世界注定意味着我们将饱受偏见和无知的折磨,但对于任何一个试图在意见世界成就功业的人来说,坚实稳固的主体能动性的真正养成恰恰依赖于同真实意见世界的遭遇。     

Exploring Gender Bias Against Women: Ethics for Marriage and Family Therapy

During the past 15 years, the negative implications of the female gender role, as demonstrated by marital dissatisfaction and mental health problems, have been documented extensively in the social science, psychology, and feminist literatures. In this article, developmental and psychological assumptions about women that are fundamental to current marriage and family therapy practice are explored. The authors call attention to the absence of substantive knowledge about women's development and to the ethical risks associated with reliance on traditional gender role notions in work with female clients. Ethical guidelines for reducing bias in therapy, especially with couples and families, are offered to counselors and therapists for evaluation and refinement of professional gender role sensitivity.     

我国传统名责思想与家庭角色伦理建设

我国传统名责思想精华与糟粕并存,在为宗法等级名分制度服务的外壳下,包裹和蕴含着以名定责、责权相合、义务双向、名副其实等角色伦理思想的合理内核。借古鉴今,构建现代家庭角色伦理规范体系,加强家庭角色伦理道德教育,完善家庭角色伦理的规约机制,开展家庭角色道德实践活动,进而推动家庭美德建设,具有重要的理论意义和实践价值。     

Fundamentalism, Gender and Family Therapy

Adherence to religiously and culturally defined communities is a complex affair, likely to be misconstrued by those perceiving such communities from the 'outside'. This is a major reason why multiculturalism has failed to deal with the threat posed by religious fundamentalism. In particular, dissenting voices within these communities are marginalized. Fundamentalism is understood here as a specific anti-modern movement, a response to the crisis of rationality that draws on the same emotional forces as do postmodernism and feminism but to different ends. It is characterized by acceptance of the existence of absolute authority, militancy and anti-humanism. It casts women as both 'ideal' (as mothers and bearers of the culture) and 'other' (as sexual subjects). It embodies a failure of the imaginative capacity to tolerate difference and otherness, linking it with other narcissistic responses to the tensions of modernity. Challenging fundamentalism, in therapy and in politics, requires a more subtle understanding of the dynamics of dissent within cultural and religious communities too conveniently characterized by outsiders as homogeneous.     

家族伦理、家族愿景和华人家族企业的内部治理

华人家族企业在内部治理上体现出一定的独特性,这种独特性和华人社会中的家族伦理有着一定的对应关系,表征为基于纵向有序伦理的家长式权威治理以及基于横向差序有别伦理的关系治理.华人社会中的家族伦理之所以会从日常领域嵌入到企业场域并产生强势影响,很大程度上是出于家族愿景的偏好.并主要体现在代际传承和控制权让渡层面;但值得关注的是:由于企业组织理性、市场理性和家族伦理的非兼容性,家族成员尤其是家族企业主持人会在一定程度上超越家族伦理理念并进而矫正、优化企业的内部治理机制,带来有限度的"伦理脱嵌".     

Individual,Marital, and Family Therapy

Two therapists have recently suggested that marital therapy is either a shadow of individual therapy (Robert Harper) or eclipsed by family therapy (Jay Haley). We offer an apologia for marital therapy. We suggest that empirical evidence shows that it works. Further, clients often request it and resist a redefinition of marital concerns as individual or family problems. Finally, people value a focus on the marriage because (a) it blends individual rights and communal responsibilities and (b) it is the only voluntary relationship between dyads with the family. We conclude that marital therapy, when requested and appropriate, is legitimate and effective.     

Technolatry, Methodolatry, and the Results of Family Therapy

Wells and Dezen's revisited results of research on the outcomes of nonbehavioral family therapy are themselves revisited. While their conclusions are largely defensible in terms of conventional criteria for research design and for assessing change in psychotherapy, we question whether such standard criteria are sufficient for studying the outcomes of family therapy. Moreover, Wells and Dezen's preoccupation with therapeutic technology at the expense of relationship factors and of "objective" change measures at the expense of more inferential measures severely limits the clinical and conceptual meaningfulness of their review.     

Professional Politics and the Concepts of Family Therapy, Family Consultation, and Systems Consultation

At a time when an increasing number of professionals are calling themselves "family therapists," many teachers and theorists in this field are troubled that the term "family therapy" no longer adequately characterizes the concepts or activities of the field. Recently, clinical, political, and economic circumstances have emerged that suggest the need for alternatives to the role of "family therapist." By adding the roles of family consultant and systems consultant, we can open up new options for ourselves and our clients. During initial contacts with families, agencies, and other professionals, we can heighten our therapeutic potential by proceeding with consultative stocktaking, not starting with therapy. Family consultation also can assist in redirecting therapy when a new problem or an impasse develops, in focusing on competency rather than on pathology, and in engaging constructively with families that have a physically or mentally ill member.     

Social Responsibility Ethics: Doing Right,doing Good,doing Well

The ethics of social responsibility is discussed in reference to six case vignettes drawn from forensic psychology. A definitional model of social responsibility is proposed, and two unequal components of the concept—respect for the individual and concern for social welfare—are identified. The sources of ethical conflict in regard to social responsibility are enumerated. Scholarly criticism of the value orientation of forensic psychology is reviewed, and forensic psychology is contrasted with social policy advocacy efforts made by organized psychology. The social responsibility obligations of psychologists in the microethical sphere, where their actions affect individuals, are diffentiated from the obligations psychology has when operating in the macroethical sphere of social policy. The ethical problems inherent in policy advocacy brought about by individual psychologists working with individuals are underscored: the inevitable element of deception, the violation of role integrity, and the circumvention of social structures and institutions that safeguard the rights of individuals.     

Bilateral Art: Integrating Art Therapy,Family Therapy,and Neuroscience

This paper describes the systemic use of a neurologically-based art therapy modality—bilateral art—that engages both dominant and non-dominant hands in the process of creating images in response to opposing cognitions or feelings. It describes both neuroscience and family therapy perspectives that argue for the use of bilateral art. A specific protocol for bilateral art therapy is provided along with a case study demonstrating integration of the protocol into the systemic treatment of a young family. Carole M. McNamee, PhD, is Research Professor and Clinical Associate, Director of the Arts in Healthcare Project, The Family Therapy Center, Department of Human Development, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061 (cmcnamee@vt.edu).