Boundary violation ethics: some conceptual clarifications.
The practices of both forensic psychiatry and clinical psychiatry appear to require and to use, in boundary-violation discourse, a special way of referring to the heightened attention to the ethics of interpersonal exchange. But this discourse and the judgments it expresses are each in need of closer scrutiny. A variety of factors make the determination of certain actions to be boundary violations unclear, including the range of alleged boundary-violating behavior, ambiguities in the fundamental metaphor of boundaries violated or transgressed, and confusion about the explanatory status of the value judgments boundary-violation language is used to express. In addition, disputes and disagreements regarding boundary-violation judgments require analysis--an analysis undertaken in this article through appeal to theories of professional role morality. Noted also is the significance of gender in boundary-violation ethics.
Radden
J
J
Department of Philosophy, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA 02125, USA. Jennifer.Radden@umb.edu
D003219:Confidentiality; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005260:Female; D005555:Forensic Psychiatry; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009014:Morals; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D012650:Self Disclosure; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D014481:United States