Etiikka on työmme ydin – Psykoterapian etiikkaa koskevat sosiaaliset representaatiot psykoterapeuttien fokusryhmäkeskusteluissa

Abstract

The aim of my research was to identify social representations concerning psychotherapy ethics among psychotherapists in advanced specialist-level training. The 23 participants, 9 men and 14 women, were primarily recruited from training groups representing four psychotherapy orientations: family, trauma, cognitive analytic, and psychoanalytic orientations. The data were collected in focus group discussions, where each of the four groups met in three largely self-directed sessions to discuss the ethics of psychotherapy. The transcripts of the discussions were analysed using the method of dialogical analysis for focus groups. The analysis identified four recurrent and explicit big themes, each reflecting an underlying implicit social representation. All social representations discovered were dilemma-like: the interlocutors found solid arguments and justifications not only for their own but also for opposing views. The first recurrent theme concerned external regulation of psychotherapy, such as laws and ethical codes. The social representation underlying the discussion was the dilemma between personal and rule-based ethics: who has the right to define the ethical good. The second recurrent theme, concerning the boundaries in psychotherapy, addressed the fundamental nature of psychotherapeutic relationship: how to be both human and professional in relation to the client. The third and fourth recurrent themes addressed the values of psychotherapy from two different angles. First, the discussion on the psychotherapist’s influence on the client focused on the conflicting views of psychotherapy as value-free or valueladen. Even though the interlocutors considered psychotherapy value-laden, they found it important to defend their stance, which was evidence for the third social representation. Second, the psychotherapists addressed the various parties whose values must be taken into account in a psychotherapeutic relationship; whose values should be preferred emerged as a social representation. The interlocutors also discussed explicitly the question of how ethics should be covered in psychotherapy education. Their suggestions are presented in this thesis. Keywords: psychotherapy, ethics, professional ethics, values, social representations, focus group discussions, dialogical analysis