A rational client's decision to suicide may present particularly complex ethical issues for a therapist. This article presents and discusses a 3-month account of therapy with such a client, from the perspective of the ethical values and principles upon which assessment and treatment decisions were made, and the complex ethical dilemmas encountered as the therapist juxtaposed the client's autonomy with the irreversibility of her potential death by suicide.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
American Psychological Association . (1981). Ethical principles of psychologists. Washington, DC: Author.
2.
Beauchamp, T. L. , & Childress, J. F. (1983). Principles of biomedical ethics (2nd ed., pp. 19-220). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
3.
Heyd, D. , & Bloch, S. (1981). The ethics of suicide. In S. Bloch & P. Chodoff (Eds.), Psychiatric ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
4.
Keith-Speigel, P. , & Koocher, G. P. (1985). Ethics in psychology. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum.
5.
May, R. , & Yalom, I. (1984). Existential psychotherapy. In R. J. Corsini (Ed.), Current psychotherapies (3rd ed., pp. 354-391). Chicago, IL: F. E. Peacock.
6.
Powell, C. J. (1984). Ethical principles and issues of competence in counseling adolescents. The Counseling Psychologist, 12, 57-67.