Self, Scruples, & Rock ‘n Roll: or the Authenticity of Self

Self, Scruples, & Rock ‘n Roll:

or the Authenticity of Self

Presented toLifestyle Intervention Conference

October 6, 2015Jeff Christie, LCSW, CEAP

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Section I: Some Fundamentals on Ethics

The Role of Doubt

Appreciate doubt. Doubt allows us to rethink our assumptions. When people become too confident of their beliefs, they stop asking questions, stop reflecting. Their minds become closed. Unquestioned beliefs soon become dogma, and dogma has too often been the foundation for man’s inhumanity to man.

Saul Alinsky

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Ethics: what it is and what it’s not

What it is not:

• not about law• not about policy• not an excuse for judgmentalism

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Ethics: Definitions• Ethics: the study of the general nature of morals and moral choices

• Morals are broad principles, (e.g., “Thou Shalt Not…”

• Normative ethics: sets norms or standards of ethics or

conduct in a particular setting or profession

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Ethics: Definitions

Ethics is to morals what musicology is to music.An ethical dilemma is the collision of two moral values (noble vs. noble or noble vs. ignoble) where benefit or harm to another may result

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Ethics vs. Law

“Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then?...It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.”

Henry David Thoreau

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Ethics: what it is and whatit’s not

What it is:• based on choice rather than mandate• based on the facts of the situation at‐hand• leading to and requiring action• based on experience (“reasonable man”)• requiring consideration of others’ viewpoints• requiring consideration of the effects of our actions

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Ethics: Theoretical Branches

• Deontological Theories: judge actions according to whether they comply with a “universal” or absolute rule (Kantian)

• Teleological theories: judge actions by their consequences (consequentialist)

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Kantian Ethics:• based upon the ideas of Immanuel Kant• argued for the existence of universal values that superceded human consideration (categorical imperatives)

• emphasized the concept of duty

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Consequentialist Ethics:• claims that rightness or wrongness of actions depends on their consequences

• utilitarianism: whatever produces the greatest overall amount of good

• Proponents: John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham

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Questions:• Can you identify an EAP ethic that appears universal (i.e., absolute)?• Can you identify an EAP ethic whose adherence is determined by its probable

consequences?

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Vignette #1How important is honesty?

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Considerations in Ethical Decision Making

What is the potential ethical issue in this situation?• What are the competing values or interests?• What are your personal values on the issue and which ones are in conflict?

• Are there any ethical guidelines (laws, corporate policies, or professional guidelines bear on this issue?)

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Who are the Stakeholders?• The company• The company’s customers• The employee• The employee’s coworkers• The public• You

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Who are the Stakeholders?• Corporate consequences or rewards?• Financial consequences or rewards?• Job consequences or rewards?• What key variables would make a difference?

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Assess the Environment for Decision Making “Contaminants”:

• Is the corporate environment supportive of or oppressive upon ethical decision making?

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Assess the Environment (work climate):• Which people impact this situation (i.e., those who affect, as opposed to being affected by, the situation?

• How are they related to each other?

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• Would you be comfortable telling a respected friend or colleague of your decision?

• Would you be willing to see it on a billboard or in a newspaper?

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• Which choice is the most ethically defensible?

• Make your decision.

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Section II: The Ethics of Authenticity

The Ethics of Authenticity

Contributing Factors:• Traits • Traumas • Trip‐ups• Transgressions


• Traits : The Work of Jeffrey Kottler, Ph.D.– Competence– Control– Pseudo‐intimacy

• The risks of self‐disclosure, large and small


Defenses against facing painIntellectualizationCompartmentalizationProjectionSomatizationTherapimorphing


Trauma, or Encounters with Pain:• Physical• Emotional • Spiritual

• “Not me, I never subscribed to Just World Theory”


Trip‐Ups and Transgressions• Trip‐Up (Cognitive Error)

– Two roads diverged in a wood, and I…chose the wrong one

• Transgression (A Relational Error)– Accepting culpability of causing harm

Ethics of Authenticity

Life as the Ultimate Master of Remedial Education:“Oh, you thought you understood what it meant to experience (grief, sorrow, loss, regret, guilt, self‐reproach, despair). Well, now it’s time for Grief 201.”

“That which doesn’t kill us, makes us.”

Kindness

Before you know what kindness really isyou must lose things,

feel the future dissolve in a momentlike salt in a weakened broth.What you held in your hand,

what you counted and carefully saved,all this must go so you know

how desolate the landscape can bebetween the regions of kindness.

How you ride and ridethinking the bus will never stop,

the passengers eating maize and chickenwill stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho

lies dead by the side of the road.You must see how this could be you,

how he too was someonewho journeyed through the night with plansand the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.

You must wake up with sorrow.You must speak to it till your voicecatches the thread of all sorrowsand you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,only kindness that ties your shoes

and sends you out into the day to mail letters andpurchase bread,

only kindness that raises its headfrom the crowd of the world to sayIt is I you have been looking for,

and then goes with you everywherelike a shadow or a friend.

Naomi Shihab Nye

Ethics of AuthenticityCollapse of the Iron Veil or “I thought there was a desk between us”• I, too, am a flawed, damaged, and partially blind human

stumbling through this life• The education in my head:

– Provides no insulation to the onslaughts of this world– Bears no relevance to the scars on my soul

• I don’t get to leave myself behind as I enter my office.

One Example

The Prevalence of Depression• Bemoaning the stigma• Doing the math• If only I had the flu• De‐stigmatization begins at home


Coming to Terms and the Value of Vulnerability

• Integrating Self into Professional Self• Personal Value• Collective Value – The Recovery to Practice Initiative

Ethics of AuthenticityRecovery to Practice: Basic Elements

• Acceptance of others, acceptance of self. Affirmation of the shared humanity of all: staff and clients alike.

• Allowance: Challenge the mindset of “not ready for change” or “resistant to follow‐up”

• Holistic: not just “between the ears.” Sees the whole of client’s life: food, shelter, employment, health, family, and community


Recovery to Practice: Observations

• Long accepted in addiction recovery, but avoided in other areas of mental health treatment

• Avoiding the excesses of self‐disclosure• Fundamentally, Beware the false dichotomy: as if there really ever was a true distinction between those who bring their life experience (in recovery) vs. those who bring their diplomas.

Summary

• Ethics ≠ Law• Ethics can be an cerebral study of esoteric principles or an enduring personal examination of self toward ideal self

• No escape from bringing yourself into the helping process • Self includes my traits, my training, my compassion as well as my traumas, trip‐ups, and transgressions

• An evolving helping professional integrates all of them

Healthcare

Self, Scruples, & Rock ‘n Roll: or the Authenticity of Self