Doing the Right Thing

The purpose of this book is to offer a more adequate framework for discussing and approaching moral issues arising in treatment. The framework for this moral paradigm centers on the concept of moral functioning. The chapters explore the implications of a functional paradigm for understanding the clinician's role in dealing with the moral aspects of several common clinical problems: influencing patients, deciding on the direction of treatment, understanding problems in caring, approaching moral dilemmas, and dealing with unfair pain and with moral failure. The last two chapters discuss the therapeutic potential of moral growth and transformation, and the possibility of achieving needed integration through the use of a moral paradigm.