Ethical Issues in the Assessment and Treatment of a Rational Suicidal Client

1 January 1988

journal article
other
Published by SAGE Publications in The Counseling Psychologist

Vol. 16 (1) , 128-138
https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000088161011

Abstract

A rational client's decision to suicide may present particularly complex ethical issues for a therapist. This article presents and discusses a 3-month account of therapy with such a client, from the perspective of the ethical values and principles upon which assessment and treatment decisions were made, and the complex ethical dilemmas encountered as the therapist juxtaposed the client's autonomy with the irreversibility of her potential death by suicide.

Keywords

ETHICS

This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:

Ethical Principles and Issues of Competence in Counseling Adolescents
The Counseling Psychologist, 1984
Ethical principles of psychologists.
American Psychologist, 1981