Duty to Warn and to Protect - Essay Example

Duty to Warn and to Protect Introduction It would not be an exaggeration to suggest that living in society should be regarded as one of the most significant prerequisites for the development of the inner potential of a human being. Indeed, if it had not been for the presence of other people around, a considerable number of abilities which are regarded as characteristic to our kind would not have developed. Nevertheless, there might be situations when people are still not comfortable in the social environment. In spite of the fact that this may be caused by various internal or external factors, this shows that people within the community may not be fully happy and experience various problems. Some individuals may cause harm to themselves while other may be dangerous to other people. In any case, it is the job of a therapist to make sure that a person copes with the personal crisis and carries on happy and productive life. A brief scenario For the purposes of this paper, one should imagine the following scenario. The author will be a therapist that has a patient. The latter tends to be distressed. He is a white male in his mid-twenties, experiencing a personal crisis: he wants to find a girl who will ultimately become his wife, but he simply can not, not matter how hard he tries. His inability to cope with this problem causes him to experience severe stress. There are two ways that he deals with it: on the one hand, he spends much time in the bed, waiting for the feelings that tear his soul to go away; on the other hand, he recently started thinking about hurting other people. The latter thoughts are very rare and the subject clearly acknowledges that they are wrong. However, he admits that there are times when he looses control over his actions. The legal, ethical and clinical issues to consider To begin with, it may be important to identify the legal issues that this case holds. Thus, the therapist is made aware of the violent intentions of his client. The latter said several times that hurting others will allow him to release the stress. The subject is well educated person with a stable income with no legal history. Other than during the session he acts cheerfully and assertive. It is highly likely that he will be able to buy a gun if he wants to. With all this in mind, the therapist is faced with a possibility that his client might start a shooting spree. That is why it is the legal obligation of the former to inform law enforcing agencies that there is a subject in the area that experiences a personal crisis and made a clear statement of possible intentions of hurting others because of that. There is also an ethical concern that the therapist should take into account. It is rather possible, that the person will meet the love of his life on the next day after the session and forget about all the horrible things that he said while being desperate. However, there is also a chance that the crisis will be long enough to accumulate a sufficient amount of pain that would urge one to perform such acts. Furthermore, despite the therapy that will be provided, the subject might still start hurting people. In this case there is a question: Will the therapist be responsible in any way for the damage that was done by the subject? In other words, the former should understand one’s boundaries of involvement into this situation. Finally, one of the most important issue that should be highlighted in this case focuses on the abilities of the therapist. In other words, the latter should ask himself if one is proficient enough to make sure that this situation has a positive outcome. It is essential not to exaggerate one’s abilities since otherwise the person will hurt other. This means that if a therapist objectively thinks that there is nothing that can be done for this person, one should direct the latter to a different, more experience therapist. This is a difficult choice to make, but in reality it is able to save many lives. Of course, many people think that the talents and skills that they possess allow them to deal with any situation; however, in this particular case, there may not be any chance for failure since that would take lives of innocent people. The consultation The case in question is truly difficult. That is why the therapist might find it necessary to get a proper consultation about the above mentioned issue. First of all, it is important to learn the proper way of differentiating dangerous clients from those who only appear to be dangerous. It is quite possible that having reported the client as a treat to the local community the police would harm the person is a way and the therapist will be responsible for it. Furthermore, it is quite plausible that this person simply wants to appear aggressive, while one would never perform any violent action. That is why reporting the client to the police should be well grounded and fully justified since after that there is no turning back for the person in terms of normal life: there will be a stigma on him. The next important point that should be consulted is the position of the therapist. Thus, it is important to note that there are several approaches toward the way interaction with the client should be maintained. On the one hand, it is important to make sure that there is a strong connection between a therapist and a client and that they are able to exchange the deepest feelings. In this case, the former may feel partially responsible for the damage that may be done to others. However, on the other hand, it is necessary to make a clear division between the two. In other words, a therapist may do one’s best and apply all the available knowledge, but this will still be not enough to prevent the tragedy from happening. That is why a therapist should not feel any guilt in this event since they were simply outside his or her control. Finally, there is last aspect that should be discussed, namely the way of the state of the client in question should be addressed. There are several approaches that one might utilize. On the one hand, it may be useful to let the client blow off the steam during sessions and carry on living his live. In other words, the client will see the sessions as an effective tool to deal with the inner pressure. On the other hand, a therapist might be willing to find the real cause of the problem and make sure that it is eliminated. Though it may be rather difficult to accomplish, the effect of it will be long lasting and rather positive. It is obvious that there may be other approaches, but these two represent the major directions in which the therapy might be conducted. The proposed course of action Now it may be rather important to outline the proposed course of action that would be beneficial in the situation in question. The first step that seems to be necessary is to let the client blow off the steam (Jarvis, 2004, p. 25). Indeed, the young man seems to be very angry and aggressive because he is in the constant state of frustration. In other words, there is inner tension that is growing inside of him and he does not have an effective way to release it. The therapist might employ different way to deal with it. For example, it may be useful to let the client talk his anger out, making sure that what ever he says will not be recorded and will not be reported to the police. This way the client will feel that he has a way to wear of the stress without causing harm to anyone. The second step of the therapy would be to identify the cause of the aggression. It is quite obvious that the person is question is not an aggressive one and this is just a manifestation of self destructing behavior (Krahé, 2001, p. 23). Therefore, the client should understand the true nature of it and help the therapist find a source of what distressing him. The frustration with life is only the superficial problem: it may be necessary to go deep into conscience to understand the driving powers of the current state. When the problem is identified, the therapist and the client will have to work on it gradually. It is quite understandable that no personal crisis may be solved in the course of one session. However, every session should contribute to a gradual healing of the person. Finally, the step that the client would benefit from is directing his attention towards other issues (Hartmann, 2009, p. 162). It is quite understandable that he may think that his love life is the major priority at the moment, but in reality there are so many other activities that may require his attention that he may forget about the personal issues. Of course, this may be seem as solution to the problem in the long run, but it will surely break the inner circle of despair and depression which might gradually lead to aggression that may hurt other people. After taken all these three steps, namely blowing off steam, understanding the sources of self destructing behavior and directing attention to other issues, the client is likely to feel much better and the threat to the environment will be minimized. Conclusion Having examined all the points that were mentioned in the paragraphs above, it may be logical to come to the following conclusion: the case of the hypothetical client in question is surely a rather controversial one: it involved various legal, ethical as well as clinical issues that should be carefully analyzed. Since the personal crisis that a person experiences might harm others, the police should be warned about it’ however, the therapist should be extremely careful while doing so as misunderstanding of the situation might lead to terrible consequences. Nevertheless, it is important to draw boundaries of the responsibility of the therapist since the outcome of interaction with the client may not be positive and it will not be fault of the former. In addition to that, the therapist should be proficient enough to handle the situation and sensible to admit the lack of proficiency and direct the client to a different specialist. References Hartmann, S. (2009). Events Psychology How to Understand Yourself and Other People. Eastbourne: Dragon Rising. Jarvis, M. (2004). Psychodynamic psychology: Classical theory and contemporary research. London: Thomson. Krahé, B. (2001). The social psychology of aggression. Hove: Psychology Press. Read More