Boston Rebels

Cedar Barstow asked:


Both Meg and Rob were thinking about grief.  So a bit more about that.  Grief, of course, has it’s own rhythm and pace, and is a process….neither to be rushed nor clung to.  I’m reminded of the Sensitivity Cycle from the Hakomi Method.  The Sensitivity Cycle describes the process of becoming more and more sensitive and effective.  It has four phases:  clarity, effectiveness, satisfaction, and relaxation.  All four phases need attention and organically move on to the next.  In thinking of grief, for example, first you need to be clear about what you’re grieving, then take some kind of effective action, then find and integrate some satisfaction from the action you took, and then relax and let go—so that you will have made space for a new cycle.  It is easy to get stuck at each phase and with grief it seems that the most common place to get stuck is in letting go.  Getting unstuck and letting go when it is time seems to involves having a “gut” sense of the timing. It also involves trusting that letting go of the process of grieving for a person, thing, or event, doesn’t mean letting go of it all, but rather knowing that you have integrated it, or the learning from it, within you.

In responding to Sally who is looking for some more depth, I’d like to say something about two kinds of ethical decision-making edited from pages 59-61 of my book:  Right Use of Power: The Heart of Ethics.  I find that we as professionals most often think of ethical decision-making simply and solely as the second kind I describe as complex decision-making without putting conscious attention toward ordinary moment, every day kind of ethical decision-making.

Ordinary moments—ethical attention.

The basic ethical question is: Is what I am doing in the best interest of my client? With this question in mind, the preponderance of ethical decisions are made moment to moment in the ordinary process of sessions with your clients. Commitment to the best interests of your clients is the often unnamed and yet constant foundation that guides your interventions. Everyday ethical decisions involve both personal integrity and professional responsibility. For example, supporting your client’s accurate self-assessment of progress, conveying compassion for suffering, holding hope when your client has lost their hope, making sure you complete a session in a timely way. Ethical decision making is deeply embedded in your professional relationships. Moment to moment decisions create trust.

Ordinary Moment Ethical Decision-making

Let’s break this down a little further.  When being ethically sensitive and aware, there are two kinds of ethical decision-making. The first arises in everyday, ordinary service moments. These require tracking subtle energetic cues, attitudes of integrity, and attunement to being in right relationship. Here are some everyday, normal instances using client questions:

•How often should I be coming to see you?

•Will you write a recommendation for me?

•Can we go later today?

•Can I pay at a reduced rate?

•Would you meet me for coffee to talk about a business idea?

•Is this situation I’m in a healthy one?

•Tell me about your marriage.

Decision-making Using Ethical Codes & Power Spiral

Far less frequently, you are called to make complex ethical decisions that require time to think through your response, consulting with your supervisor, referring to your Ethical Code, and/or using the Power Spiral model in the Right Use of Power book. Examples of such ethical challenges might be:

•deciding how to manage an inevitable dual role relationship

•making a DSM4 diagnosis and considering the ramifications

•reporting impending or actual harm effectively and skillfully

•confidentiality exceptions

•deciding whether your client is being re-traumatized

•making appropriate referrals

•responding and adapting to cultural diversity

•use of touch

•self-disclosure

•handling sexual issues

•dealing with possible unethical behavior by colleagues.

In these non-ordinary complex situations, there are many forces and influences to consider. Some of these include: regional laws, ethical code, clinical assessment, gut intuition, standards of practice, transference, supervisor recommendations, cultural norms, risk to client and/or caregiver, employer policies, client wishes, client’s life circumstances, and your personal issues and feelings.

I hope you will find it useful to think in terms of these two different categories of ethical decision-making.  I look forward to hearing from you if you wish to respond.

Cedar Barstow

For more information about Right Use of Power see www.rightuseofpower.com

©Copyright 2007 Cedar Barstow, M.Ed., C.H.T. All Rights Reserved. Permission to publish granted to GoodTherapy.org. The following article was solely written and edited by the author named above. The views and opinions expressed are not necessarily shared by GoodTherapy.org. Questions or concerns about the following article can be directed to the author or posted as a comment to this blog entry. Click here to contact Cedar and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile

Dana Smith asked:


Proverbs 24:27 ¶Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field and afterwards build thine house. Darby

Proverbs 18:9 ¶He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster.

The principles of right and wrong that are accepted by an individual or a social group..Ethics..Wordweb

America, for many fulfills these ideas for many who come here. America has been from the start a multi-cultural project. Groups of people from many nations such as Britain, France, Spain, Italy, and others made up this New World. The main idea was to find a quick route to Asia. Asia was the place for riches obtained in the trading and transporting goods. These goods were taken from the point of origin to the home country of the ship. As America, grew, the business people here wanted freedom from the tyrannical rule of the foreign powers who wanted to keep grip on this New World. Thus, the idea of Multi-culturalism was born. This idea being that several different cultures (rather than one national culture) can coexist peacefully and equally in one nation.

America has not only shown that this can exist. She has shown it to flourish, though business ethics have changed from the infant it was in the beginning. Once a Plantation owner could have slaves. Using them in business was considered fair and equal. However, even then some people hated slavery, people aside from the slaves themselves. . As the people of this nation grew in ethics, they realized such avenues such as slavery was wrong. Although, Abraham Lincoln did abolish slavery, it took many years for the full realization to take hold. Today, in the high rise of power and prestige you will find many whose roots date them to slaves.

Within the confines of many larger cities are conclaves of multi-culturalism. You have “little Italy”, “Chinatown”, and many others. All people from differing nations that bring them one desire. That is to make a better life for them and their families. When doing this, they all agree to one thing. That is the Ethics of America. To do and follow our laws. To live peaceable with each other and live freely. This Multi-culturalism is what makes America what it has become.

The problem we have in the midst of business ethics and ethnicity is when the total framework of America’s business’s is changed for one group or individual. This is seen by the legislation that is being hammered out for illegal aliens. Most of which we have seen on the news is Mexican, South American, and speak Spanish. This is not the case. For history proves that Chinese have been smuggled into America since the early goldrush and the building of the railroad. Also let us not forget the Cubans, and those boatloads of Vietnamese. All these wanted to migrate to our country. Live a free life and do business. The legislation and recent debates, however, focus on one group alone. This is wrong.

Ethics for many business’s are regulated first by what is legal and what is illegal. A quick search on Wikipedia with the word Ethics, will provide a glimpse into this world. Revealing the hidden dangers that have been in the news. From Martha Stewart to WorldCom, we have seen ethics in motion. The ethics of some in business have been seen as illegal by those in the legal area’s. Thus, the people in power who ran the business schemes under cloak and danger were held accountable. Thus ethics are related to legality in America. The enforcement of which cover all Ethnics and races who do business in this country.

Moreover, we find Ethics and Ethnicity relating to World issues as well. This is on the forefront of many discussions today. One example is found in Denmark where just this issue was pursued “Ethics and Ethnicity”. A forum by a major Denmark university conducted a seminar in 2005 on this. Their basis for doing this and reasoning stated:

Since moral decision making fundamentally has to do with how we should treat each other, a unifying goal of the seminar group will be to understand and critically evaluate how cultural and racial affiliations influence the reasonable and unreasonable expectations we have of each other.

This points to the need to discuss the distinctive obligations of students, faculty, administrators and other staff within academic institutions, in terms of their similarities and differences, regarding potential areas of conflict as well as social enrichment stemming from our encounters with people ethnically different from ourselves. The implications for our participation in the larger international community of which we are all inescapably members also will be explored, along with the recurring moral theme of the contribution to be made by institutions of higher learning to the improvement of relations among all peoples of the world. www.think.aau.dk/default.htm

Furthermore, the drive line that connects many nations today is commerce. Commerce is business, and business is propelled by people with ethics from all ethnic tribes in the world. As a result, nations, ethnic tribes, and peoples traverse the world doing business. The one avenue that all people have in common is business. That is the ability to do something to make money or barter. This translates in being able to provide for your family no matter whether you live in India, China, or America. Today, however, America still is the Grand Lady of this enterprise called Commerce. Within the Commerce you will find Multi-culturalism. The foundation of this commerce is also Ethics and Ethnicity. Without rules, regulations, and laws, the whole system would not work. It must work for all cultures, races, and Ethnic tribes.

As we look at this Ethnicity, we also find the threats. The first and paramount threat to the Ethics and Ethnicity is terrorism. Muslim’s who are totally against this kind of thing. For them, trade and commerce are the enemy. It’s paramount provider is always seen as the USA. Who is their enemy, of course. The ethnic tribes who are terrorist come from many different countries. The one link for all of them is their aberrant desire to follow Jihad against all enemies of Islam. As a result you can see this attack against the warlords of commerce and trade. No matter what Ethics you have, when you face a harsh enemy like death, life is seen as paramount. This is the reason terrorism targets the business sector. To shut down this pipeline of commerce will shut down America and the industrial nations for sure. The main target, however, seems always to be America. The USA is the leader in purveying commerce. Ethics or not, the ethnic terrorism will find a way to bend your will to his or destroy you. This is also seen in many of the oil producing countries, especially in Africa where Terrorists have shut down pipelines of oil. As well, it can be seen in Venezuela’s dictator and his hatred for the USA and its government. Within all these scenarios are ethics. Ethics that face society and declare I will destroy you if you do not bend to my wishes.

What happens if this Ethnicity and ethics come to America? What happens if groups pop up and cannot get along with each other? Will business end? It is true, that if we cannot live peaceable, then business is the first to go. America has enjoyed a long history of peace in its borders with the exception of the Civil War, the Indian Wars, and other clashes. When the Civil war was going, business was virtually stopped down south. After the war, the whole south was destroyed.

Today, America has her Ethics, but within this is the desire to keep the global business going. Facing this, are those who want to destroy this business climate and trade we know as commerce. It is kept alive by the ethics of ethnic tribes all over the world. Many of whom live in America.

Ethnicity and Ethics. We see when good people say a bad thing is okay, such as Slavery, it is not morally ethical. Society accepted it, then decided it was wrong. We also see bad people who foment hatred and death through terrorism. Their ethnic backgrounds are from all over the world. These have ethics that declare destruction, war, and hatred against society in general. Business’s who come in contact with this later group will face a hardened foe willing to destroy to get their way. But for many in America, no matter the Ethnic background, ethics are the foundation of what they do. No matter the race, the tribe, religion, for the most part, they walk the path of ethics that American business has presented. To do things in a fair way, to do it well, to be honest, and follow all the laws of the land. The only people ‘who violate this’, are those who are greedy and dishonest. The ones who cling to power and prestige. These hold that money and fame are a higher goal than any moral ethic. For them ethics cannot get in the way of what they want. Just like terrorism, they destroy to obtain.

Emily Wyschynskyj asked:


In a post WorldCom, post Enron world, should colleges be doing more to prepare graduates for what lies ahead in the ‘real world’? It is safe to say that somewhere along the line ethics education has failed within this country. One need look no further than the front page of their morning paper, or the quarterly update of their portfolio, to realize how desperate this situation has become.

            Not so long ago businessmen, and women, were looked up to; the title of CEO came with an underlying respect from the employees of an organization, as well as outsiders. It really meant something to hold the highest position within a company. Flash back to today and the title Chief Executive Officer evokes quite a different picture. Type ‘CEO’ into any popular search engine and within 5.8 seconds you will be bombarded with over 300,000 results. Many of which also contain phrases like: crisis, bailout or lawsuit.

            In an effort to remedy this situation, Universities have begun to integrate ethics education into their business curriculums, as well as into the regular curriculum for all students. In a study conducted by Angela Hernquist, doctoral candidate from the University of Nevada Las Vegas, 90% of responding institutions indicated that Ethics was part of their curriculum. Over a decade earlier the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy passed the requirement that all licensed Certified Public Accountants complete a four hour, board approved, ethics course (VanZante). This requirement was later supplemented by two hours or ethics courses every three years. Following the Enron, and subsequent Anderson LLP collapses, TSBPA required an additional four hours of ethics every two years beginning January of 2005 (VanZante).

            It is certainly nice to hear that things are being done to ensure that graduates leaving their field of study will be better prepared for the workplace, but are we really meant to believe that a five credit course, or a mere four hours can change who a person really is? From personal experience I can confidently say no, the ethics education that I have received in college has done nothing to influence what kind of person I am. A brief rundown of the course syllabus may hold the key as to why I do not feel that I got my money’s worth of ethics. While utilitarianism and other various philosophies may be at the foundation of a great education, what do they really have to do with ethics today? Will I make a better CEO because I understand Ayn Rand?

            Time in the classrooms of our Universities would be better spent teaching mathematics, writing, or even psychology. Perhaps if we understood why people behaved unethically we could do something to stop it. One thing is clear; the ethics we are being taught today are failing us. Failing us as students, and as citizens of the world. If we are really to believe that we do not learn ethics until college that what hope is there when nearly 25% of Americans never make it that far (Henry). Are we a nation of heathens running around like a ticking time bomb? I propose that we begin learning ethics much earlier than college, even earlier than grade school. Ethics begin in the home, the community, and the individual.

            People are beginning to recognize the need for early ethics education in children, and have started to do something about it. Patti Martin, B.S., M.A., Director of Ethical Education, has opened an ethics course for children ages 2-12. Her program is called Sunday Ethical Education for Kids, or SEEKS. SEEK aims to do what some parents apparently cannot, to instill ethics into the children of the community in one hour segments. SEEK meets once a week, on Sundays naturally, at the University of Missouri Extension Center, in Mid Rivers Missouri. There are no expectations, just the hope that parents will bring their children by to get some much needed guidance on becoming a better person.

            Maybe more programs are needed in colleges, or maybe the child ethics courses offered at the University of Missouri are the answer. Whatever that answer may be, one thing is for sure, we haven’t found it yet, and if we do not find it soon we are setting ourselves up for more disaster. I don’t know how the rest of the country feels, but I am not looking forward to a lifetime of paying the high salaries of today’s CEOs in what feels like a never ending stream of corporate bailouts.

Henry, Tamara. “Report: Greater Percent of Americans Educated”. USA Today 6/05/2002

 Hernquist, Angela. “A Survey of Ethics Courses in State College and University Curricula”. University of Nevada Las Vegas. February 2005

“Raising Ethical Children”. Mid Rivers Ethical Society. 11/28/2008 .

VanZante, Neal. “Improving Professional Ethics”. The CPA Journal May 2005

Michael Mifsud asked:


ETHICS OR BUST

How can one forget the business of those scruples and the perplexed looks in peoples faces when asked as to what they had done with them. The same goes with ethics except that it does not sound as close to other hidden possibilities as the other word does. The effect is not the same. We talk about an unscrupulous person but not about an unethical one merely subscribing this to activities. Perhaps that is why it is rendered something that is not worth pursuing with respect as to what it has to teach us.

The political speaker, a disillusioned dissident, in one of the Latin European countries, spoke very freely about the need to introduce ethics into daily lives, much to the santimonious satisfaction of nodding heads in this Jesuit organised public debate.

“It is easy to be a Christian with a fat balance in the bank behind you”, said one alarmingly.” “A choice between ehics and feeding your ailing child..”said another with equally disapproving gestures.

In fact it renders the whole thing a little beyond social capability as ambition instinctively overrides ethics and the bulk of the much abused public expects it, fully intending to do the same if ever capable of getting to those corridors of  lucrative licence.

But is it a dead issue even in the modern European Countries - a chimera where much is swept underneath the carpet and higher levels of emerging power create added personal survival interests ? Apparently not, according to the Jesuit University in the United Sates dedicated to the propagation of Bioethical studies.

Yet again, can it be taken seriously when both politicians and religious leaders sepak bluntly in favour of issues and behaviour that decry the very existance of something as ephemeral as ethics.  In fact lamentably, even in strongly puritanical countries of the higher echelons of the European family, the doubt begins to emerge as to whether ethical values have not only disappeared but have been superseded by a new type of quantum politics and social behaviour now geared to basic survival with or without the electric toothbrush and the bijou residence.

The obvious paradox emerges when it becomes clear that ethical values and conduct have been and are necessary for a modern democracy to function. Also, for extended family reasons where freedom from aggression and clear sense of direction are taken for granted. But is this understood by the politicians and the tired looking religious figures who appear to have lost their definition of sin ?  The public may ride rough shod over ethical standards but it very much expects other not to, which like many other things in modern life, seems to be a one way thoroughfare.

The British Queen made a curious plea in her recent Christmas talk to the vast Nations she represents. It included a philosophical touch to the nature of service to others rather than taking from, acknowledging the former to be a mayor source of happiness. This criteria although once again difficult to absorb by those unacceptably high,  underprivileged members of modern developed societies who have been marginalised by successive insensitive governments, should be,  indisputably, the very base of all monetary and social systems. It is difficult to imagine how that piece of  bake could emerge edibly from that oven, otherwise.

Why this is so is not too difficult to understand even at its most primitive level. In its absence, delinquency could become as it does in some countries, a matter of personal choice, by the public or its leaders. If  smah and grab appears to work for those without the means or without belief in the ones who rule their collective destiny, then the choice is made early in the game.  Public example is therefore, like that demanded of credible Justice, to be seen in its ethical context and all behaviour free of doubt or hidden motivation. For the average and sensible member of the public a correct choice of direction follows, even if only to appear correct, and always if the message from above  is very loud and clear.  It is lamentably increasingly difficult to detect the clarity of the image  through the paper barricades and empty signals of those who should constantly set obvious examples.  And even more so, when the world appears to be falling apart in every direction and self mutilated giants like the financial institutions, like spoilt children,  make demands on all but themselves.

Ethical values precede democratic demands and one cannot essentially, however closely examined, do without the other.  Those who assume otherwise appear to be fated to get what they deserve - receding freedoms and eventual slavery.  Totalitarian government in pursuit of its own highly sectarian survival,  once consolidated, can impose political or religious shackles that could take much bloodshed and often centuries to shake off. Standing in defence of ethical standards would have been a better way of avoiding it.

Ethical values appeal to those with noble sentiment and whose consideratons within business transactions include principles like fair play and the aim to establish goodwill on both sides of the contracting fence. In business, leaving margins for both to play with and benefit from, is a sure formula for repeat sessions during the course of time.  Bad, opportunistic and imbalanced contracts serving the interests of one crafty side,  often provide the basis for a great deal of future aggression and bitterness which add venom and insecurity to the ripples of perceptive awareness which flow across all societies.

The creation of the yuppie, whilst stimulating personal,  positive advancement, literally unleashed an attitude based on false principles which served a very limited purpose. A purpose which victims of the exaggerations and inaccuracies of the selling jargon, if  not for those who perpertrated the abuse, would  forge the shortcomings of future decades to come. The pressure tactics,devoid of all ethics, in the main, fed people into economic bottlenecks, like property bubbles or accumulation of useless products. Those who applied it, would have not survived within markets requiring an ethicial approach to the establishment of the buyers needs. Unfortunately,truth at the bottom line depends on whether the buyer necessarily wants to hear it. If so, could one equate an ethical society with a firm inherited base, or one with a tactical defensive training based on do’s and don’ts. To eat or be eaten as some would say, but can values be taught and applied in this cut and thrust melee ?

Ethical standards some, would say, depends on upbringing which is not essentially the case as modern governments often sacrifice genuine interest for its governed in pursuit of narrow, party politically inspired benefits.  Finding ways and means of extracting the ultimate essence in unwilling contribution from the electorate, appears to feed most of the motivation. Additionally, it often bends the truth short of 360 degrees to ferment non existing needs or establish a nebulous base for a line to follow.  Public consciousness is often late in reacting to such pressures but curiously it misses little and gladly,  albeit rather tardily,  often reacts with apprehensive reponse, for a change. The sorry side, is that it nearly always has much to do with the pocket rather than the heart and often things and values have changed for better or for worse.

Legislation however clumsy,  in its pursuit of the protection that would otherwise be served by general public standards, is often a blunt instrument that perverse elements often find the loopholes to outwit, depending mainly in the already questionable legal profession,  to do its dirty work. Again, it takes little study to see that abuse of public confidence by national monopolies too politically related, has increased alarmingly.  So much so, that even basic need industries like energy and water suppliers  the profit balance precludes any and every attempt to obtain market applaud - often at the expense of the shareholder - always to the benefit of a few at the top of the fence. Any peripheral study of the market games of this sector would find one glaring omission - one that provokes a public sense of outrage if not helplessness - social concern. In other words, low ethical standards.

Ethics therefore one would assume should belong to the category of those utopian nostalgic sentiments bred out, by realistic hardline practice, but the sorry state of the institutions and economic hardware which should therefore still stay in place, urgently says otherwise. How to bring it back into line is something that deserves not only the close evaluation of those intending to restore the so called balance but the urgent reappearance on the political and religious field of those with values that speak of courage and determination.  Values that speak of eyes and not of lips.