Choice, responsibility, causality, and psychotherapy

Discusses choice, responsibility, and causality in the context of psychotherapy, drawing on academic and humanistic theory, research, philosophy, and personal observation. From various perspectives, choice is seen as part of being human and as an indication of psychological health. The psychotherapeutic task is seen as expanding choice to its scientific existential limits. Contemporary theoretical positions on the relationship between choice and responsibility are seen as "justifying" an evasion of responsibility. In recent discussions of responsibility and causality in psychotherapy, some theorists confuse three levels of analysis: (a) the process of psychotherapy, (b) the nature of the therapeutic relationship, and (c) an understanding of causality. This confusion provides a basis for rationalizations of inhumane, irresponsible behavior and raises ethical issues. (34 ref)