Soul Searching: Why Psychotherapy Must Promote Moral Responsibility [Paperback]

William J. Doherty (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 22, 1996 | ISBN-10: 046500945X | ISBN-13: 978-0465009459 | Edition: 1

Paul, a divorced father, wants to back out of his child care arrangement and spend less time with his children.Nathan has been lying to his wife about a serious medical condition.Marsha, recently separated from her husband, cannot resist telling her children negative things about their father.What is the role of therapy in these situations? Trained to strive for neutrality and to focus strictly on the clients’ needs, most therapists generally consider moral issues such as fairness, truthfulness, and obligation beyond their domain. Now, an award-winning psychologist and family therapist criticizes psychotherapy’s overemphasis on individual self-interest and calls for a sense of moral responsibility in therapy.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers 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.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From 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.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1 edition (March 22, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 046500945X
• ISBN-13: 978-0465009459
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 4.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #135,007 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #82 in Books > Medical Books > Medicine > Medical Ethics

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Author offers a much needed correction for psychotherapy., August 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Soul Searching: Why Psychotherapy Must Promote Moral Responsibility (Paperback)

William Doherty hits the nail on the head in offering an alternative to the professional's approach concerning today's human problems. In the name of responsible psychotherapy, so many professionals have done a grave disservice to families and communities by eliminating responsibility to others in their guidance.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good points, but he could make them more concisely, July 5, 2001

By 

Jennifer "Jennifer" (Jamaica Plain, MA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Soul Searching: Why Psychotherapy Must Promote Moral Responsibility (Paperback)

Perhaps it was because Doherty was mainly preaching to the choir, but I didn't find this book to offer any startling revelations. I had to read it for a seminar, and found myself skimming the later sections of the book. It was well written and easy to read. He just could have said what he had to say in fewer pages.

3.0 out of 5 stars Influenced by post modern viewpoint, February 18, 2012

By 

Lewis Hotchkiss "Lewstermax" (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Soul Searching: Why Psychotherapy Must Promote Moral Responsibility (Paperback)

The variability of "truth" seems to play a somewhat important role in this book. Who's truth? Who's foundation of psychotherapy? Doherty doesn't really answer these questions directly(very post modern) but gives you bits and pieces that help you see somewhat of a justification for his method of psychotherapy.
His examples are quite helpful, for a how-to-do-it. My therapist swears by this book and would not let me divorce my wife on a whim, or make some other life-choice without considering my responsibilities to everyone involved. This is good. In other therapist's rooms, I've been treated like "meat", or allowed to just wander wherever my dialogue would take me, not getting anything done, but "doing value-neutral therapy" nonetheless.
Doherty, is not about old fashioned "value-neutral therapy". Instead, he substitutes his-values-therapy which just happens to be very middle-class safe. In the wrong hands, this book could pseudo-justify an negative moral agenda whereby the therapist ends up bedding down the most beautiful patient he has seen in a long time. Dangerous ground!
But, Doherty has a point that is well worth exploring. It just needs better moral underpinnings.