Posted by pegasus on April 11, 2011, at 15:26:20
In reply to ethics of therapy and payment, posted by pegasus on April 11, 2011, at 10:23:16
I think this is partly so tricky because therapy is one of those places where social and market norms clash. There's a great book that discusses this (among other things): "Predictably Irrational". When I first read about social and market norms in there, I immediately thought of therapy.
So, the idea is that when exchanging items and services, we tend to operate either in social mode or in market mode. And crossing from one to the other creates icky feelings. For example, if you try to pay your mother-in-law for Thanksgiving dinner, that is very rude. You're trying to operate in the social realm using market norms. Or, if you ask a friend who is a tax professional to do your complicated taxes for free, that's rude, too. You're trying to operate in the market realm using social norms.
Therapy seems to operate in social and market realms at the same time, which is really confusing. Sometimes we apply social norms (giving gifts, hugs - sometimes, creating warm interpersonal relationships), and sometimes we apply market norms (payments, appointments). Crossing from the social realm into the market realm (i.e., at payment time) is jarring on both sides (in my experience at least), and unhelpful to the parts that operate in the social realm.
Maybe the trick is to try to separate the two realms as much as possible? But how?
- P
poster:pegasus
thread:982468
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20110324/msgs/982484.html