Monday, April 24, 2017

Disturbing Trends by Peter Reum

Having been on this planet for a long time, I have developed some biases and prejudices that I have worked hard to make myself conscious of. Some of them are harder to face. As a trained counseling/therapy professional, my biases are something I am required ethically to take into account in any therapeutic relationship I undertake.
We access these almost unconscious thoughts and instincts dozens of times daily. The reactions that we have initially may emanate from associations with another person's physical stature, tone of voice, where they live, who their friends are, what their occupation is, and so forth.
The therapist must know himself/herself well enough to make a decision whether the person who is seeking therapy or is court ordered for therapy would benefit from a professional to client relationship. This decision is one of the most important decisions a counselor or a psychologist will make.
As time has passed from the early period of the field of counseling to the more ethically based and license governed structure of today, there are a number of foundational rules and boundaries that cannot be broken. There are the rules that are more familiar to society as a whole, and other rules that are primarily known by professionals in the helping fields.
The more well known professional rules center upon behavior of the occupation that adopts a code of ethics. As an example, many of the various codes of ethics' behavioral standards involve avoiding any behavior toward clients that is "unprofessional." Perhaps the most well known psychological/counseling ethical standard that people seeking professional help are familiar with is centered upon avoidance of personal emotional and/or sexual relationships with clients. This would include sexual harassment or providing services that are done for a type of "payment" that is not monetary.
It happens that many professions "barter" services for other services that the medical or therapeutic professional is not allowed to ethically access. Many other professionals outside the medical, pastoral, and therapeutic types of occupations barter without reservation. For some families and individuals, especially those who cannot afford to purchase the services needed, it is necessary to barter. Medical and therapeutical professionals are generally not allowed to barter.
The laws of the United States have harsh penalties for medical and helping professionals who break laws governing their ethical professional standards of behavior. In my field, penalties increase in severity depending on the nature of the misconduct of the therapeutic counselor. Civil litigation is often initiated for these sorts of violations that involve flagrantly continuing misbehavior. It is rare for a counseling/therapeutic professional to successfully defend their behavior if the client can testify well and avoid inflating the severity of the therapist's transgression.
In a sense, many of these ethical standards are also codified into common law covering what is unacceptable behavior between ordinary citizens. Laws cover several types of human interaction, such as assault, rape, sexual harassment, and so forth. The veneer of civilized behavior is often very thin. The polemics between interest groups with political differences has, at times in United States lawmaking and politics, gone past civil disagreement. After all, we fought the Civil War over such political conflicts.
In platforms where public debate is often conducted, the discussions over how the country should proceed in coming years have become festering boils on the country's collective body. A close examination of the dynamics of debate between progressive citizens and their conservative counterparts will yield often destructive pigheadedness. We seem to have lost the genuine willingness to work together to develop a consensus needing to be best forged to benefit all of the citizens of the U.S.A.
Such a consensus building approach can serve to bring practical agreements on a high number of issues previously considered by extremists on both sides as unsolvable.
To change the status quo, there will need to be developed a consensus building problem solving approach. This approach brings together rational people desiring a more practical discussion and resolution of political issues. This discussion must generate an ordered and structured approach to fixing the issues on the table needing resolution. Practical problem resolution approaches must lower the posturing and theatric rhetoric that makes finding consensus improbable. Rational progressives and conservative discourse should begin with the basic idea that the other side's key points are genuine. It is worth the time and effort to listen to their positions respectfully. Demeaning the other side's ideas or making fun of their primary leadership regarding each issue has to be unacceptable.
It is a basic truth that idealogues on both sides of an issue will use rhetoric that is designed to promote conflict. Practical and straight-forward communication and renouncing of extremist members of progressive and conservative groups will behaviorally reward consensus builders on both sides and remove power leverage from idealogues who like to "bogart" the attention from the broadcast and print media.
It is exciting that the number of women in the Congress is growing gradually. Women in the last few Congresses have often crossed the aisle and worked with each other to move toward drafting pieces of legislation that will pass the Congress and be signed by the sitting President. As each piece of legislation goes into effect, consensus building is strengthened. Extremists are negatively reinforced for their attention seeking behavior. Instead of being rewarded by the press for their attention seeking, they are ignored. There will always be attention junkies in Congress. The press will learn where the real power resides, and ignore the braying donkeys and elephants.
For we common citizens, the same approach holds. Behavioral Psychology principles are scientifically validated. When someone gets flamed on any of the various social communication sites, it behooves well-intentioned progressives and conservatives to respond to the attention-seeking idealogues on both sides in a civil yet confrontational manner showing basic human respect for them as people....not as microphone hogs and idealogues. Another choice is simply ignoring the blaring blather from attention seekers on both sides.
Political discourse between Members of Congress and Senators as well as those of us who discuss politics on Social Media do not have to lower ourselves to a kindergarten fight over toys. Playing "gotcha" is misanthropic. As a country, as a community of nations, and as a species, we need to find the humanity and commonality we share. The alternative is the death of all we hold dear....our lives, our civilization, and most of all, our planet.
Copyright 2017 by Peter Reum - All Rights Reserved

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