Quote:
Originally Posted by frackfrackfrack
I did not intend to offend with the gay marriage example. Its just another law that I personally don't believe in or understand the need for.
Anyway, let's replace it with the illegality of marijuana in several states. And I'm only using examples because I confuse myself if I am too abstract.
The point I was trying to make is that perhaps we should examine our appeal to the illegality of patient-client relationships. To me, that argument doesn't hold water. To convince me, you must give some arguments about why that illegality is different from the illegality of possessing marijuana.
Just a note that I've certainly been in ordinary relationships which really messed with my head - I felt suicidal when they ended, the person manipulated me or took advantage of me etc. To be concrete, I once dated a guy who I was very emotionally invested in and only realized after he broke up with me that he wanted to use me to practice having sex with. He was getting married through an arranged marriage with a person from his country and wanted to be more sexually experienced. To me that's not any better than a dr. taking advantage of you because you are enthralled with them. And it could be the case that a relationship with a therapist is much healthier.
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Ok I can approach this argument with this metaphor.
I'm sorry about how your partner used you and misled you. That's awful and you deserve better.
I also agree that marijuana laws in this country are bunk. MJ is no worse than alcohol, IMO. It can be used responsibility and it can be abused. There is also, as often the case in systems where any kind of 'taboo' is oppressed and shamed, a LOT of misinformation out there about it. What is the difference between a dealer and a seller? The Law, how it's enforced and whom it's more likely to be enforced against. The laws that forbid it are enforced in a way that benefits a racially biased class system.... and well don't ... get me started... about how wrong much of that is... anyway...
Using this metaphor, I see a therapist as a
seller of a certain kind of product. The user decides why and how they want to use it. There are a lot of sellers who are believers in medical properties of Marijuana as well as the right of people to have the freedom to use it for whatever personal reason they like. There are also unethical sellers who are out to make a buck, who don't care to know about the product and don't care about the user and their own addictions, or potential problems with the product.
So using this metaphor. What about a seller who is paid to have knowledge of varieties of hemp. I'm told some varieties make you feel calm, others make you fell hyper, silly, etc. What if a seller sells a customer a variety knowing that they'd like to to go home with that customer and get high together? At what point does the seller start to change his/her recommendations based on his/her own desires rather than the client's?
And this may not be the best metaphor because we're talking altered states of mind, but in the end if we're talking marijuana or vacuum cleaners, a Seller is responsible for their presenting an honest deal to the end user... and the seller's desire, or romantic involvement with the buyer of those goods challenges the question of integrity of the one who has more knowledge of the product the user/client/patient/etc came has a need for.