My Other’s Keeper. Resources for the Ethical Turn in Psychotherapy

Journal title QUADERNI DI GESTALT
Author/s Donna M. Orange
Publishing Year 2018 Issue 2018/2
Language Italian Pages 16 P. 23-38 File size 217 KB
DOI 10.3280/GEST2018-002004
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Being the other’s keeper is an ethically based "call on duty", instead of being sustained by mere moral issues or masochism of the therapist. In order to be at the ethical service of others, therapists need to be connected with their own forces of spiritual strength and be inspired by those characters, whether dead or alive, who can sustain the "finite" therapist in front of the "infinite" other’s suffering: an internal choir of imperfect giants and yet humans, chosen among literature, art and history, who are often in conversation one with another and constitute the compassionate helping team of the therapist. Such a resource is to be given to young therapists willing to follow the call of the other’s immense suffering in this world.

Keywords: Ethics, trauma, other’s suffering, internal choir.

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Donna M. Orange, Il custode del mio altro. Risorse per una svolta etica in psicoterapia in "QUADERNI DI GESTALT" 2/2018, pp 23-38, DOI: 10.3280/GEST2018-002004