Does the postulate of the neutrality of the psychotherapist serve the client’s freedom?

Authors

Tomasz Niemirowski
Krakowska Akademia im. Andrzeja Frycza Modrzewskiego

Synopsis

The psychotherapist is obliged to be neutral. However, every action has a purpose and strives for some good. What should be this good? Psychotherapy should increase the client’s freedom, so we have to think how to achieve it. I assume that freedom is the ability to do everything that one wants. However, everyone wants to have a sense of self-worth. That’s why if someone has no hints as to what is good and what is bad, he cannot be free. One feels free when he is sure that what he has chosen is good. The condition for this certainty is a true image of reality. That’s why the role of the psychotherapist will be to provide such an image. The element of this image is the knowledge of good and evil, that is to say how one will feel under the influence of specific actions. The psychotherapist’s responsibility comes into play here, which involves knowing the effects of possible decisions and the ability to assess which ones will be good for the client. The therapist is responsible for what happens in the client during the psychotherapy and what decisions he/she makes. It is therefore necessary to postulate an ethical education of a psychotherapist. If the client’s trust meets the therapist’s responsibility, psychotherapy will reach its goal. The principle of neutrality should therefore be replaced with the principle of responsibility, and changing the definition of freedom will change the rules of conducting psychotherapy.

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Published

November 20, 2020

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