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Contents

Preface xiii

1 Introduction to Professional Ethics 1

The Focus of This Book 2
Some Suggestions for Using This Book 3
Professional Codes of Ethics 4
Ethical Decision Making 11
Steps in Making Ethical Decisions 19
Self-Assessment: An Inventory of Your Attitudes and Beliefs
About Ethical and Professional Issues 24
Chapter Summary 34
Suggested Activities 35

2 The Counselor as a Person and as a Professional 37

Self-Inventory 38
Introduction 39
Self-Awareness and the Influence of the Therapist’s
Personality and Needs 39
Personal Therapy for Counselors 42
Transference and Countertransference 47
Client Dependence 54
Stress in the Counseling Profession 57
Counselor Burnout and Impairment 60
Maintaining Vitality Through Self-Care 63
Chapter Summary 64
Suggested Activities 65

3 Values and the Helping Relationship 67

Self-Inventory 68
Introduction 69
Controversies Regarding Integrating Personal Values
With a Professional Identity 69
Clarifying Your Values and Their Role in Your Work 71
vii
 The Ethics of Imposing Your Values on Clients 73
The Legal Framework Regarding Values Discrimination 77
Values Conflicts Regarding Sexual Attitudes and Behavior 82
Value Conflicts Pertaining to Abortion 85
Case Study of Other Possible Value Conflicts 87
The Role of Spiritual and Religious Values in Counseling 88
Value Conflicts Regarding End-of-Life Decisions 94
Chapter Summary 101
Suggested Activities 101

4 Multicultural Perspectives and Diversity Issues 105

Self-Inventory 106
Introduction 107
The Problem of Cultural Tunnel Vision 110
The Challenges of Reaching Diverse Client Populations 112
Ethics Codes From a Diversity Perspective 113
Cultural Values and Assumptions in Therapy 114
Addressing Sexual Orientation 122
The Culture of Disability 129
Matching Client and Counselor 133
Multicultural Training for Mental Health Workers 137
Chapter Summary 144
Suggested Activities 145

5 Client Rights and Counselor Responsibilities 148

Self-Inventory 149
Introduction 150
The Client’s Right to Give Informed Consent 152
The Content of Informed Consent 157
The Professional’s Responsibilities in Record Keeping 166
Ethical Issues in Online Counseling 175
Working With Children and Adolescents 182

viii / Contents
 Dealing With Suspected Unethical Behavior of Colleagues 189
Malpractice Liability in the Helping Professions 191
Chapter Summary 202
Suggested Activities 202

6 Confidentiality: Ethical and Legal Issues 204

Self-Inventory 205
Introduction 206
Confidentiality, Privileged Communication, and Privacy 206
Privacy Issues With Telecommunication Devices 220
Implications of HIPAA for Mental Health Providers 222
The Duty to Warn and to Protect 224
Protecting Children, the Elderly, and Dependent Adults From Harm 244
Confidentiality and HIV/AIDS-Related Issues 248
Chapter Summary 252
Suggested Activities 253

7 Managing Boundaries and Multiple Relationships 254

Self-Inventory 255
Introduction 256
The Ethics of Multiple Relationships 257
Perspectives on Boundary Issues 266
Managing Multiple Relationships in a Small Community 268
Bartering for Professional Services 272
Giving or Receiving Gifts 278
Social Relationships With Clients 281
Sexual Attractions in the Client–Therapist Relationship 283
Sexual Relationships in Therapy: Ethical and Legal Issues 287
Sexual Relationships With Former Clients 292
A Special Case: Nonerotic Touching With Clients 294
Chapter Summary 297
Suggested Activities 298

Contents / ix
 8 Professional Competence and Training 301
Self-Inventory 302
Introduction 303
Therapist Competence: Ethical and Legal Aspects 303
Ethical Issues in Training Therapists 309
Evaluating Knowledge, Skills, and Personal Functioning 313
Gatekeeper Role of Faculty in Promoting Competence 320
Dismissing Students for Nonacademic Reasons 323
Professional Licensing and Certification 326
Continuing Professional Education and Demonstration of Competence 328
Review, Consultation, and Supervision by Peers 330
Chapter Summary 331
Suggested Activities 331

9 Ethical Issues in Supervision 334

Self-Inventory 335
Introduction 336
Ethical Issues in Clinical Supervision 337
The Supervisor’s Roles and Responsibilities 339
Ethical and Effective Practices of Clinical Supervisors 341
Competence of Supervisors 342
Legal Aspects of Supervision 344
Ethical Issues for Online Supervision 347
Special Issues in Supervision for School Counselors 348
Multicultural and Diversity Issues in Supervision 349
Multiple Roles and Relationships in the Supervisory Process 352
Chapter Summary 362
Suggested Activities 362

10 Issues in Theory and Practice 365

Self-Inventory 366
Introduction 367
Developing a Counseling Style 367
The Division of Responsibility in Therapy 369

x / Contents
 Deciding on the Goals of Counseling 370
The Use of Techniques in Counseling 372
Assessment and Diagnosis as Professional Issues 373
Using Tests in Counseling 386
Evidence-Based Therapy Practice 388
Chapter Summary 393
Suggested Activities 394

11 Ethical Issues in Couples and Family Therapy 395

Self-Inventory 396
Introduction 397
The Systems Theory Perspective 397
Ethical Standards in Couples and Family Therapy 398
Special Ethical Considerations in Working With Couples and Families 401
Informed Consent in Couples and Family Therapy 402
Contemporary Professional Issues 403
Values in Couples and Family Therapy 406
Gender-Sensitive Couples and Family Therapy 410
Responsibilities of Couples and Family Therapists 414
Confidentiality in Couples and Family Therapy 416
Chapter Summary 420
Suggested Activities 420

12 Ethical Issues in Group Work 422

Self-Inventory 423
Introduction 424
Ethical Issues in Training and Supervision of Group Leaders 424
Ethical Issues in the Diversity Training of Group Workers 427
Ethical Considerations in Coleadership 432
Ethical Issues in Forming and Managing Groups 433
Confidentiality in Groups 440
Social Media in Group Work: Confidentiality and Privacy
Considerations 443
Ethical Issues Concerning Termination 445

Contents / xi
 How to Determine What Works in a Group 447
Chapter Summary 449
Suggested Activities 450

13 Community and Social Justice Perspectives 451

Self-Inventory 452
Introduction 453
Why a Community Perspective Is a Concern for Counselors 455
Ethical Practice in Community Work 456
The Community Mental Health Orientation 458
Social Justice Perspective 460
Advocacy Competencies 464
Roles of Helpers Working in the Community 465
Promoting Change in the Community 468
Working Within a System 470
Chapter Summary 475
Suggested Activities 475

Authors’ Concluding Commentary 477

References and Suggested Readings 478
Name Index 507
Subject Index 515

xii / Contents
Preface

Our friend and colleague, Patrick Callanan, died on March 17, 2017 (St. Patrick’s
Day). He was a coauthor with us on the previous editions of Issues and Ethics in
the Helping Professions. For many years we enjoyed working with Patrick on vari-
ous projects, and we will miss his companionship and professional involvement
with us. Patrick devoted much of his life to the counseling profession as a practi-
tioner and made a significant difference in the lives of many clients, students, and
professionals.
Issues and Ethics in the Helping Professions is written for both graduate and
undergraduate students in the helping professions. This book is suitable for
courses in counseling, mental health counseling, human services, couples and
family therapy, counseling and clinical psychology, school counseling, and social
work. It can be used as a core textbook in courses such as practicum, fieldwork,
internship, and ethical and professional issues or as a supplementary text in
courses dealing with skills or theory. Because the issues we discuss are likely to
be encountered throughout one’s professional career, we strive to use language
and concepts that will be meaningful both to students doing their fieldwork and
to professionals interested in keeping abreast of developments in ethical, profes-
sional, and legal matters pertaining to therapeutic practice.
In this book, we want to involve our readers in learning to deal with the eth-
ical and professional issues that most affect the actual practice of counseling and
related helping professions. We address such questions as: How aware are you of how
your values and life experiences affect your professional work? What are the rights
and responsibilities of both the client and the counselor? How can you determine
your level of competence? How can you achieve and maintain your competence?
How can you provide quality services for culturally diverse populations? In what
ways could you involve yourself in social justice and advocacy work? How can you
go outside of the office and make a difference in the community? What major ethical
issues might you encounter in couples and family therapy? in group work? in com-
munity agencies? in a school setting? in private practice? Our goal is both to pro-
vide a body of information and to teach a process for thinking about and resolving
the basic issues counselors will face throughout their career. For most of the issues
we raise, we present various viewpoints to stimulate discussion and reflection. We
also present our personal views and commentaries, when appropriate, and chal-
lenge you to develop your own position.
The ethics codes of various professional associations offer some guidance for
practice. However, these guidelines leave many questions unanswered. We be-
lieve that as a student or a professional you will ultimately struggle with the issues
of responsible practice, deciding how accepted ethical principles apply in the spe-
cific cases you encounter.
Throughout this book, we aim to involve you in an active and meaning-
ful way. We provide many opportunities for you to respond to our discussions.

xiii
 Each chapter begins with Learning Objectives to guide your reading and a Self-
Inventory designed to help you focus on the key topics to be discussed in the chap-
ter. Within the chapters we frequently ask you to think about how the issues apply
to you. Open-ended cases and situations are designed to stimulate thought and
discussion, and we encourage you to apply the codes of ethics of the various men-
tal health professions to the case illustrations. Reflecting on the questions follow-
ing each case example will help you determine which of the therapist responses
are ethically sound and which are not. We offer our commentaries after each case
to guide you in the process of determining sound ethical decisions. We also cite
related literature when exploring ethical, legal, professional, and clinical issues.
Instructors will find an abundance of material and suggested activities, surely
more than can be covered in a single course.
An Instructor’s Resource Manual is available that contains chapter outlines, sug-
gestions for teaching an ethics course, additional exercises and activities, a list of
PowerPoint slides, and study guide questions. A Test Bank for each chapter and
online quizzes are available to instructors. An electronic version of the Instructor’s
Resource Manual is available for all platforms.
Issues and Ethics in the Helping Professions comes with MindTap®. MindTap,
a digital teaching and learning solution, helps students be more successful and
confident in the course—and in their work with clients. MindTap guides stu-
dents through the course by combining the complete textbook with interactive
multimedia, activities, assessments, and learning tools. Readings and activities
engage students in learning core concepts, practicing needed skills, reflecting
on their attitudes and opinions, and applying what they learn. Videos of client
sessions illustrate skills and concepts in action, and case studies ask students
to make decisions and think critically about the types of situations they will
encounter on the job. Helper Studio activities put students in the role of the
helper, allowing them to build and practice skills in a nonthreatening environ-
ment by responding via video to a virtual client. Instructors can rearrange and
add content to personalize their MindTap course and easily track students’
progress with real-time analytics. MindTap integrates seamlessly with any
learning management system.
An integrated learning package titled Ethics in Action: DVD and Workbook
(third edition, 2015) is available to enhance the 10th edition of Issues and Ethics
in the Helping Professions. The Ethics in Action DVD is designed to bring to life the
ethical issues and dilemmas counselors often encounter and to provide ample
opportunity for discussion, self-exploration, and problem solving of these issues
and dilemmas. The vignettes on the DVD are based on a weekend workshop cofa-
cilitated by Marianne Schneider Corey and Gerald Corey for a group of counseling
students, which included challenging questions and lively discussion, role plays
to bring the issues to life, and comments from the students and the Coreys. Addi-
tional material on the DVD program is designed to provide a self-study guide for
students who are also reading this book. This educational program is divided into
three segments: ethical decision making, values and the helping relationship, and
boundary issues and multiple relationships in counseling. At the end of several
chapters in this book are suggested activities and guidelines for integrating the
Ethics in Action video program with this textbook.

xiv / Preface
What’s New in the 10th Edition
of Issues and Ethics
For the 10th edition, each chapter has been carefully reviewed and updated to
present the current thinking, research, and trends in practice. The following
chapter-by-chapter list of highlights outlines some sample material that has been
added, updated, expanded, and revised for the 10th edition.

Chapter 1 Introduction to Professional Ethics

• Citation of updated ethics codes whenever available
• Inclusion of themes common to most codes of ethics
• Increased emphasis on positive ethics rather than rule-based ethics

Chapter 2 The Counselor as a Person and as a Professional

• Updated literature on personal therapy for trainees and for practitioners
• Updated material on sources of stress in the helping professions
• Expanded discussion of self-compassion and self-care strategies for
professionals
• Updated discussions of burnout, practitioner impairment, and maintaining
vitality

Chapter 3 Values and the Helping Relationship

• A new section on controversies regarding integrating personal values with a
professional identity
• Increased attention to the responsibility of counselor education programs in
being clear with students about managing personal values
• Increased attention to the necessity for graduate students in counseling to
learn how to work within the framework of the client’s value system
• More focus on avoiding value imposition by ethical bracketing
• Implications of several court cases in dismissing students unwilling to keep
their personal values separate from counseling clients with a different set of
values
• New section on state legislation to protect religious freedom
• New literature on the ethics of values-based referrals and discriminatory
referrals
• New material on the role of spirituality and religion in counseling
• New section on ethical and clinical issues with nonreligious clients
• Description of an ethical decision-making model to determine whether
religious or spiritual beliefs may be clinically salient

Chapter 4 Multicultural Perspectives and Diversity Issues

• Increased coverage of cultural pluralism and cultural competence
• Updated section on ethical issues regarding sexual orientation
• Increased and updated coverage of ethical issues and competencies required
in counseling lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender clients

Preface / xv
 • Introduction to how a social justice orientation relates to a multicultural
perspective
• Updated discussion regarding acquiring and maintaining cultural competence
• Presentation of authors’ views on multicultural training

Chapter 5 Client Rights and Counselor Responsibilities

• Updated and expanded section on content of informed consent process
• Updating of all of the ethics codes on the topic of client rights and counselor
responsibilities
• More attention to cultural factors related to the informed consent process
• Revised discussions of informed consent and confidentiality as it pertains to
managed care
• Added literature on addressing risks of diagnosis in the informed consent
process
• Expanded treatment of clinical record keeping
• Revised guidelines for keeping records with couples, families, and groups
• Updated discussion of the ethical issues involved in online counseling
• New material on alternative technologies in online counseling
• Updated material on emerging issues in online counseling
• Expanded discussion of common complaints against counselors and reasons
for malpractice suits
• Revised discussion of risk management practices and implications for clinical
effectiveness
• Increased focus on balancing risk management with investment in quality care
of clients

Chapter 6 Confidentiality: Ethical and Legal Issues

• More emphasis on counselors having an ongoing dialogue with their clients
about how, when, and with whom information will be shared
• Revised section on privacy issues with telecommunication devices
• Commentary on the use of telephone-delivered psychotherapy
• Revised discussion of confidentiality and privacy in a school setting
• New literature on duty to warn and to protect
• New section on ethical considerations with clients who self-injure
• New material on safety plans with high-risk clients
• Expansion of topic on prevention of school violence
• Expansion of discussion on predicting and preventing acts of violence
• Revision of section on dealing with dangerous clients
• Revision of risk management strategies in dealing with duty to protect
situations

Chapter 7 Managing Boundaries and Multiple Relationships

• Revised discussion of how some boundary crossings can result in enhanced
client care
• More attention to ways of establishing appropriate boundaries
• New section on setting appropriate boundaries outside the office

xvi / Preface
• Revised critique of the slippery slope phenomenon
• Updated literature on ways to minimize risks for those working in rural areas
and in small communities
• New literature on dealing with sexual attractions

Chapter 8 Professional Competence and Training

• Increased emphasis on how competence is a significant topic for counseling
students
• Expanded discussion of the gatekeeper role of faculty
• New section on training practitioners to work in a digital culture
• Expanded discussion on the role of interpersonal behavior in working with
trainees and the need to have difficult conversations with trainees who mani-
fest professional competency problems
• Updated discussion on dismissing students for nonacademic reasons
• Updated section on maintaining competence and the value of lifelong learning

Chapter 9 Ethical Issues in Supervision

• Updated coverage of informed consent in clinical supervision
• Revised material on legal aspects of supervision
• Discussion of power dynamics in the supervisory relationship
• More emphasis on the importance of a strong supervisory working alliance
• New discussion of the role of a supervision contract
• New discussion of the concept of strict liability for supervisors
• Revised material on assessment of culturally competent supervision
• Updated treatment on role of spirituality in supervision
• Expanded section on addressing gender issues in supervision
• Revised discussion of clinical supervision for school counselors
• Revised section on the ethical issues for online supervision
• Revision of multiple relationships in the supervisory process
• Updated discussion of how positive boundary crossings can enhance super-
visory relationships

Chapter 10 Issues in Theory and Practice

• Updated section on assessment and diagnosis
• Updated discussion of ethical issues regarding the DSM-5
• Revised section on ethical and legal issues pertaining to diagnosis
• Revision of cultural considerations in assessment and diagnosis
• A critique of empirically supported treatments

Chapter 11 Ethical Issues in Couples and Family Therapy

• Expansion of the systems theory perspective
• More emphasis on the revised AAMFT code of ethics
• More attention to how a therapist’s family-of-origin experiences can influence
a therapist’s work with families
• Updated discussion of confidentiality in couples and family therapy
• Updated discussion on dealing with secrets in working with multiple clients

Preface / xvii
 Chapter 12 Ethical Issues in Group Work
• Revised and expanded discussion of training and supervision of group leaders
• Updated section on ethical issues in diversity training of group leaders
• Revised guidelines for acquiring multicultural and social justice competence
in group work
• New literature on privacy and confidentiality considerations pertaining to
social media in group work
• Revised section on evaluating what works in a group
• Updated material on the practice-based approach to group work

Chapter 13 Community and Social Justice Perspectives

• Additional concrete examples and cases to illustrate key concepts of social
justice in community work
• Revised section on the community as client
• Updated discussion on the goals of social justice and advocacy
• New section on social justice advocacy in school counseling

Acknowledgments
We would like to express our appreciation for the suggestions given to us by
reviewers, associates, students, and readers. The reviewers of this 10th edition
have been instrumental in making significant changes from the earlier editions.
We especially recognize the following people who reviewed the revised manu-
script of the 10th edition and offered ideas that were incorporated into this edition:
Kristen Dickens, Georgia Southern University
Maureen C. Kenny, Florida International University
Kristin Vincenzes, Lock Haven University
Julia Whisenhunt, University of West Georgia
We appreciate the feedback from the following people on selected chapters in
this edition, based on their areas of special interest and expertise:
The following people provided reviews and suggestions for various aspects of
Chapter 3, on dealing with values in counseling: Perry Francis, Eastern Michigan
University; David Kaplan, Chief Professional Officer, American Counseling Asso-
ciation; and Brad Johnson, United States Naval Academy.
For Chapter 4 on ethical issues in multicultural counseling, appreciation goes to
Mark Stebnicki for his contribution of a section on the culture of disability, which
highlights ethical issues in counseling people with disabilities.
For Chapters 5 and 6, we thank Anne Marie “Nancy” Wheeler, JD, attorney in pri-
vate practice in Maryland and the District of Columbia, affiliate faculty member
at Loyola University Maryland, and consultant for the ACA Risk Management
Service; and Jamie Bludworth, Assistant Professor of Counseling and Counseling
Psychology at Arizona State University.
For Chapter 9 on clinical supervision, we appreciate the critique of Jamie Blud-
worth, Arizona State University.

xviii / Preface
For Chapter 13 on community and social justice issues, our thanks to Fred Bemak,
George Mason University.

Finally, as is true of all our books, Issues and Ethics in the Helping Professions con-
tinues to develop as a result of a team effort, which includes the combined efforts
of several people at Cengage Learning: Julie Martinez, Product Manager, Coun-
seling, Social Work, & Human Services; Alexander Hancock, Associate Content
Developer, Sociology, Counseling, and Social Work; Vernon Boes, Art Director;
and Rita Jaramillo, Content Project Manager. Thanks to Ben Kolstad of Cenveo®
Publisher Services, who coordinated the production of this book. Special recogni-
tion goes to Kay Mikel, the manuscript editor of this edition, whose exceptional
editorial talents continue to keep this book reader friendly. Special recognition
goes to Michelle Muratori of Johns Hopkins University for her work in updat-
ing literature for all of the chapters and for providing detailed input in the vari-
ous aspects of this revision. We appreciate Susan Cunningham’s work in creating
and revising test items to accompany this text, preparing the index, updating the
Instructor’s Resource Manual, revising the PowerPoints slides, and in assisting in
development of other supplements to this book. The efforts and dedication of all
of these people have contributed to the high quality of this revised edition.

Gerald Corey
Marianne Schneider Corey
Cindy Corey

Preface / xix
chapter

1 Introduction to Professional
Ethics
l earning objecti ves
1. Identify common themes of ethics codes
2. Understand the limitations of codes of ethics
3. Describe three objectives fulfilled by codes of ethics
4. Explain the difference between law and ethics
5. Differentiate between aspirational ethics and mandatory ethics
6. Compare principle ethics and virtue ethics
7. Apply the six moral principles to ethical dilemmas
8. Recognize the steps in working through an ethical dilemma
9. Assess your attitudes and beliefs pertaining to a range of ethical
and professional issues addressed in this book

1
 The Focus of This Book
Working both independently and together over the years, the three of us have
encountered a variety of professional and ethical issues that seem to have no clear-
cut solutions. Conversations with students and colleagues reveal similar strug-
gles. Exchanging ideas has helped us deal with these issues, and we extend this
conversation to you throughout this book. We are convinced that students in the
helping professions must anticipate and be prepared for these kinds of problems
before their first fieldwork experience, and certainly before they begin practicing.
The lack of clear-cut answers to ethical dilemmas can be frustrating, but engaging
in a dialogue on these issues makes us all better clinicians and guides us toward
better clinical outcomes.
We cannot dispense prescriptions or provide simple solutions to the complex
situations you may encounter. Our main purpose is to facilitate critical thinking on
your part and to establish a basis for you to develop a personal perspective on eth-
ical practice within the broad limits of professional codes and divergent theoretical
positions. We raise some central issues, present a range of views on these issues,
discuss our position, and provide you with opportunities to refine your thinking
and actively develop your own position. Many of these issues may resurface and
take on different meanings at various stages in your professional life.
In this book we provide a flexible framework and a direction for working
through ethical dilemmas. We have refined our ideas through our clinical expe-
riences, our experiences teaching ethics, and by engaging in discussions with
colleagues and students. We are passionate about the study of ethics because it
requires that we (1) use critical thinking skills, (2) strengthen our own judgment
and decision-making processes, (3) advocate for social justice issues, and (4) chal-
lenge culturally encapsulated standards in our profession.
As you read this book, you will discover our biases and viewpoints about
ethical behavior. We clearly state that these represent our perspective and are not a
universal standard. We offer our position not to sway you to adopt our views but
to help you develop your own position. Identifying our own personal misconduct
can be far more challenging than pointing out the misconduct of our colleagues,
yet each of us must continually reflect on what we are doing personally and pro-
fessionally. In the end, each of us is responsible for his or her own ethical practice.
You will encounter many situations that demand the exercise of sound judg-
ment to further the best interests of your clients. Codes of ethics provide general
standards, but these are not sufficiently explicit to deal with every situation. It is
often difficult to interpret ethics codes, and opinions differ over how to apply them
in specific cases. In all cases, the welfare of the client demands that you become
familiar with the guiding principles of the ethics codes and accepted standards of
practice of your profession.
The various mental health professions have developed codes of ethics that are
binding for their members. Often students and practitioners confuse ethical and
legal standards, or mistakenly assume that ethics are regulated by law. Ethics and
the law are not synonymous (see Chapters 5 and 6). As a mental health provider,

2 / chapter 1
you are expected to know the ethics code of your professional organization and
to be aware of the consequences of practicing in ways that are not sanctioned by
the organization. Responsible practice requires that we use informed, sound, and
responsible judgment. It is necessary that we demonstrate a willingness to consult
with colleagues, keep up to date through reading and continuing education, and
continually monitor our behavior.
We have reexamined many of the issues raised in this book throughout our
professional lives. Levitt, Farry, and Mazzarella (2015) “suggest that experienced
counselors still struggle with the gray areas of ethics, and what may seem like
a straightforward issue rarely has clear resolutions” (pp. 94–95). Although you
may think you have resolved some of these ethical and professional issues at the
initial stage of your development as a counselor, these topics can take on new
dimensions as you gain experience. Many students believe they should resolve all
possible issues before they begin to practice, but this is an impossible task. The def-
inition and refinement of such concerns is a developmental process that requires
self-reflection, an open mind, and continual reexamination.

Some Suggestions for Using This Book

Introducing students to the many dimensions of thinking about ethical practice
is essential even though our response to questions surrounding ethical issues
and dilemmas often is “it depends.” Although a lack of clear-cut answers can be
viewed as anxiety-producing, we prefer to see it as liberating. The vast gray area
within ethical decision making provides ample opportunity for creativity and
empowerment as we grow as professionals.
We frequently imagine ourselves in conversations with you, our readers. We
state our own thinking and offer a commentary on how we arrived at the positions
we hold. We encourage you to integrate your own thoughts and experiences with
the positions and ethical dilemmas we raise for consideration. In this way you
will absorb information, deepen your understanding, and develop an ethical way
of thinking. A main priority is to clarify your goals and to think about ways of
becoming actively involved. To get the most from this book, we encourage you to
focus on the following:
• Preparation. Prepare yourself to become active in your class by spending time
reading and thinking about the questions we pose. Completing the exercises
and responding to the questions and open-ended cases will help you focus on
where you stand on controversial issues.
• Expectations. Students often have unrealistic expectations of themselves.
If you have limited experience in counseling clients, think about situations
in which friends sought your help and how you dealt with them. You can
also reflect on the times when you were experiencing conflicts and needed
someone to help you gain clarity. This is a way to relate the material to events
in your own life.
• The self-assessment survey. The multiple-choice survey at the end of this chapter
is designed to help you discover your attitudes concerning most of the issues

Introduction to Professional Ethics / 3

 we discuss in the book. Take this inventory before you read the book to dis-
cover where you stand on these issues at this time. Take the inventory again
after you complete the book to compare your responses to see what changes,
if any, have occurred in your thinking.
• Chapter self-inventories. Each chapter begins with an inventory designed to
encourage reflection on the issues to be explored in the chapter. Completing
the inventory is a good way to focus your thinking on the topics in a chap-
ter. Consider discussing your responses with your fellow students and peers.
After reading the chapter and discussing the material in class, complete the
inventory again to see if your position has changed in any way.
• Learning objectives. Found at the beginning of each chapter, the learning objec-
tives guide you to focus on the main points presented in the chapter and serve
as a checklist to help you assess the degree to which you have mastered these
key topics.
• Examples, cases, commentaries, and questions. Many examples in this book are
drawn from actual counseling practice in various settings with different types
of clients. (Elements of these cases have been changed to protect confiden-
tiality.) Consider how you might have worked with a given client or what
you might have done in a particular counseling situation. We provide our
commentary on each of the cases to guide you in clarifying the specific issues
involved and in helping you think about the course of action you might take
in each case. We also provide illustrations of possible therapist responses
to the various ethical dilemmas in the cases, not all of which are ethical or
appropriate.
• End-of-chapter suggested activities. These suggested activities are provided to
help you integrate and apply what you have learned.
• Code of ethics of various professional organizations. A summary of relevant ethics
codes of various professional groups is provided as boxed excerpts pertaining
to the topics discussed in the chapter. You may want to visit the websites of
these professional organizations and download their codes of ethics.
• Engage in critical thinking. Involve yourself in thinking about the issues we
raise. Focus on the questions, cases, commentaries, and activities that have
the most meaning for you at this time, and remain open to new issues as they
assume importance for you. Develop your thoughts and positions on the
ethical dilemmas presented. As you engage in discussions with your peers
and faculty, be open to new perspectives on how to proceed through the
ethical decision-making steps. By becoming actively involved in your ethics
course, you will find additional ways to look at the process of ethical deci-
sion making.

Professional Codes of Ethics

Various professional organizations (counseling, social work, psychiatry, psychol-
ogy, marriage and family therapy, human services) have established codes of eth-
ics that provide broad guidelines for their members. The codes of these national
professional organizations have similarities and also differences. Publications by

4 / chapter 1
the various professional organizations contain many resources to help you under-
stand the issues underlying the ethical decisions you will be making in your pro-
fessional life.

Common Themes of Codes of Ethics LO1

Each major mental health professional organization has its own code of ethics.
Obtain a copy of the ethics code of the profession you are planning to enter and
familiarize yourself with its basic standards for ethical practice. You do not need
to memorize every standard, but lacking knowledge of the ethics code of your pro-
fession is not an acceptable excuse for engaging in unethical behavior. The ethics
codes are broad and general; they do not provide specific answers to the ethical
dilemmas you will encounter. Although there are specific differences among the
ethics codes of the various professional organizations, there are a number of sim-
ilar themes:
• Being interested in the welfare of clients
• Practicing within the scope of one’s competence
• Understanding and respecting the cultural values of clients
• Distinguishing between personal values and professional values
• Avoiding harm and exploitation
• Establishing and maintaining appropriate professional boundaries
• Protecting client’s confidentiality and privacy
• Practicing within an ethical and legal framework
• Avoiding discrimination in providing services to clients
• Striving for the highest level of ethical practice
• Recognizing the importance of self-care as a basis for competent practice

Limitations of Codes of Ethics LO2

Your own ethical awareness and problem-solving skills will determine how you
translate the various ethics codes into professional behavior. The codes do not
provide a blueprint for adequately dealing with all of the ethical challenges you
will encounter, but they do represent the best judgment of one’s peers about
common ethical problems (Welfel, 2016). Codes of ethics are not cookbooks for
responsible professional behavior; they do not provide recipes for effective eth-
ical decision making. Indeed, ethics codes offer unmistakably clear guidance
for only a few problems. The American Psychological Assocation’s (APA) ethics
code (2010) is quite clear that it neither provides all the answers nor specifically
addresses every dilemma that may confront a practitioner. The ethical princi-
ples in the APA code are not enforceable rules, but they should be considered by
psychologists in arriving at an ethical course of action. Pope and Vasquez (2016)
remind us that ethics codes, standards, and laws are the beginning, not the end,
of ethical considerations. They inform us but do not replace our effort in critically
thinking through ethical issues. “Ethical decision making is a process and codes
are only one part of that process” (p. 3). In short, ethics codes are necessary, but
not sufficient, for exercising ethical responsibility. Ethics codes have a number of

Introduction to Professional Ethics / 5

 limitations (see Herlihy & Corey, 2015a; Knapp, Gottlieb, & Handelsman, 2015;
Pope & Vasquez, 2016; Welfel, 2016). Problems you might encounter as you strive
to be ethically responsible include the following:
• Some issues cannot be handled solely by relying on ethics codes.
• Ethics codes do not address the many situations that lie in an ethical gray zone.
• Some codes lack clarity and precision, which makes assessment of an ethical
dilemma unclear.
• Simply learning the ethics codes and practice guidelines will not necessarily
make for ethical practice.
• Answers to ethical dilemmas are not contained in the ethics codes.
• Conflicts sometimes emerge within ethics codes as well as among various
organizations’ codes.
• Ethics codes tend to be reactive rather than proactive.
• No set of rules or ethical standards can adequately guide practitioners through
many of the complex situations they may encounter.
• New situations arise frequently, and no two cases are exactly the same.
• A practitioner’s personal values may conflict with a specific professional value
or standard within an ethics code.
• Codes may conflict with institutional policies and practices.
• Ethics codes need to be understood within a cultural framework; therefore,
they need to be adapted to specific cultures.
• Codes may not align with state laws or regulations regarding reporting
requirements.
• Codes of ethics are often updated and require continuing education and pro-
fessional development throughout a professional’s lifelong learning journey.

Using Ethics Codes as Guides LO3

Formal ethical principles can never be substituted for an active, deliberative, and
creative approach to meeting ethical responsibilities (Pope & Vasquez, 2016). Eth-
ics codes cannot be applied in a rote manner because each client’s situation is
unique and may call for a different solution, which demands professional judg-
ment. A rule-based approach to ethics is limited in providing meaningful assistance
to clinicians who are concerned with practicing at the highest level of ethical
functioning.
Becoming a professional is somewhat like learning to adjust to a different
culture, and both students and professionals experience an ethical acculturation
process. From our perspective, practitioners are faced with assuming the respon-
sibility of making ethical decisions and ultimately taking responsibility for the
outcomes. This process takes time, and it should include consultation. Even with
many years of field experience, consultation with colleagues provides an impor-
tant check on our thinking about various ethical issues.
Herlihy and Corey (2015a) suggest that codes of ethics fulfill three objectives.
The first objective is to educate professionals about sound ethical conduct. Read-
ing and reflecting on the standards can help practitioners expand their aware-
ness and clarify their values in dealing with the challenges of their work. Second,

6 / chapter 1
ethical standards provide a mechanism for professional accountability. Practitioners
are obliged not only to monitor their own behavior but also to encourage ethical
conduct in their colleagues. One of the best ways for practitioners to guard the
welfare of their clients or students and to protect themselves from malpractice
suits is to practice within the spirit of the ethics codes. Third, codes of ethics serve
as catalysts for improving practice. When practitioners interpret and apply the codes
in their own practices, the questions raised help to clarify their positions on dilem-
mas that do not have simple or absolute answers. You can imagine the chaos if
people were to practice without guidelines so that the resolution of ethical dilem-
mas rested solely with the individual clinician.
We must never forget that the primary purpose of a code of ethics is to safe-
guard the welfare of clients. Ethics codes are also designed to safeguard the public
and to guide professionals in their work so that they can provide the best service
possible. The community standard (what professionals actually do) is generally less
rigorous than the ethical standard (what professionals should do). It is important
to be knowledgeable of what others in your local area and subspecialties are doing
in their practices.

Ethics Codes and the Law LO4

Ethical issues in the mental health professions are regulated by both laws and
professional codes. The Committee on Professional Practice and Standards (2003)
of the American Psychological Association differentiates between ethics and law
as follows: ethics pertains to the standards that govern the conduct of its profes-
sional members; law is the body of rules that govern the affairs of people within
a community, state, or country. Laws define the minimum standards society will
tolerate, which are enforced by government. An example of a minimum standard
is the legal obligation mental health professionals have to report suspected child
abuse. The law can also encourage us to work toward changing societal attitudes,
for example, to prevent child abuse rather than merely to report it.
All of the codes of ethics state that practitioners are obligated to act in accor-
dance with relevant federal and state statutes and government regulations. In a
court case, the law generally overrules ethics. As ethical mental health practition-
ers, however, we can advocate for social justice both with and on behalf of our cli-
ents and the communities we serve. Practitioners should be able to identify legal
problems as they arise in their work because many of the situations they encounter
that involve ethical and professional judgment will also have legal implications.
Remley and Herlihy (2016) note that counselors sometimes have difficulty
determining when there is a legal problem, or what to do with a legal issue once it
has been identified. To clarify whether a legal issue is involved, it is important to
assess the situation to determine if any of the following apply: (a) legal proceedings
have been initiated, (b) lawyers are involved, or (c) the practitioner is in danger
of having a complaint filed against him or her for misconduct. When confronted
with a legal issue, consult a lawyer to determine which course of action to take.
Remley and Herlihy do not advise consulting with counselor colleagues about
how to deal with legal problems because counselors rarely have expertise in legal
matters. Many professional associations have attorneys who are familiar with both

Introduction to Professional Ethics / 7

 legal and clinical issues, and members of these associations can use this source of
consultation. Establish a working, collegial relationship with a local attorney in
your state whom you can consult regarding legal issues. Some professionals have
both a law degree and a mental health degree, which can be a useful resource.
Laws and ethics codes tend to emerge from what has occurred rather than from
anticipating what may occur. Limiting your scope of practice to obeying statutes
and following ethical standards is inadequate. We hope your behavior will not be
determined by fear-based ethics. It is important to foster an attitude of concern-based
ethics early in your training program, striving for the highest level of ethical care
for your clients, a theme that is repeated many times throughout this book. Birrell
and Bruns (2016) suggest that ethics is better viewed from a relational engagement
rather than a risk management perspective. They contend that counselors need to
release the fear of punishment and open themselves to authentic mutuality so that
“ethics becomes relational and alive and fully integrated into each moment of the
clinical encounter” (p. 396).
Ethical standards serve as a form of protection for the client, but they also help
clinicians ensure their own self-care. For example, counselors sometimes strug-
gle with setting limits around being helpful to others. Having clear guidelines in
place can help you establish healthy boundaries for yourself, both personally and
professionally.
At times you may encounter conflicts between the law and ethical princi-
ples, or competing ethical standards may appear to require incompatible courses
of action. In these cases the values of the counselor come into play (Barnett &
Johnson, 2015). Conflict between ethics codes and the law may arise in areas such
as advertising, confidentiality, and clients’ rights of access to their own files. If
obeying one’s professional code of ethics would result in disobeying the law, it
is a good practice to seek legal advice. A licensed mental health professional also
may contact his or her professional organization’s legal department or state licens-
ing board for consultation.
When laws and ethics collide, Knapp, Gottlieb, Berman, and Handelsman
(2007) state that practitioners need first to verify what the law requires and deter-
mine the nature of their ethical obligations. Practitioners may not understand their
legal requirements and may assume a conflict exists between the law and ethics
when there is no such conflict. If there is a real conflict between the law and ethics,
and if the conflict cannot be avoided, “psychologists should either obey the law in
a manner that minimizes harm to their ethical values or adhere to their ethical val-
ues in a manner that minimizes the violation of the law” (Knapp et al., 2007, p. 55).
Apparent conflicts between the law and ethics can often be avoided if clinicians
anticipate problems in advance and take proactive measures.
One example of a potential conflict between legal and ethical standards
involves counseling minors. This is especially true as it pertains to counseling chil-
dren or adolescents in school settings. Counselors may be committed to following
ethical standards in maintaining the confidentiality of the sessions with a minor,
yet at times parents/legal guardians may have a legal right to information that is
disclosed in these sessions. Practitioners may struggle between doing what they
believe to be ethically appropriate for their client and their legal responsibilities to
parents/legal guardians. When working with minors, it is necessary to be familiar

8 / chapter 1
both with state laws and with school policies. Some school districts may have rules
regarding breaking confidentiality about substance abuse that differ from those of
a private practitioner.
Mental health providers in the military are likely to experience ethical
dilemmas when obligations to clients and obligations to the military organi-
zation conflict. Providers in military settings are occasionally forced to choose
between client-centered therapeutic interests and organization-centered adminis-
trative interests (Johnson et al., 2010). These competing obligations can generate
challenging ethical dilemmas. Information that is viewed as confidential in the
civilian sector may not be protected from disclosure in a military setting. A com-
manding officer’s need to know about the fitness of a service member may appear
to conflict with the ethical values of privacy and confidentiality. Licensed health
care providers in the military may struggle with apparent conflicts between their
mandated and commissioned roles as military officers and their duty to their
clients (Johnson & Johnson, 2017). Strategies for successfully managing these
situations can be found, and Johnson, Grasso, and Maslowski (2010) state that
“genuine conflict between an ethical and legal course of action—when abiding
by law will automatically violate the code of ethics or vice versa—are infrequent
occurrences” (p. 552).
In ethical dilemmas involving legal issues, a wise course is to seek advice from
legal counsel and to discuss the situation with colleagues familiar with the law.
When neither the law nor an ethics code seems to resolve an issue, therapists are
advised to consider other professional and community standards and their own
conscience as well. This subject is addressed more fully in Chapters 5 and 6.

Evolution of Ethics Codes

Codes of ethics are established by professional groups for the purpose of protecting
consumers, providing guidelines for practitioners, and clarifying the professional
stance of the organizations. Ethics codes undergo periodic revisions and are best
viewed as living documents responsive to the needs of counselors, the clients they
serve, and society in general. For example, the revised Code of Ethics of the Amer-
ican Counseling Association (ACA, 2014) addresses evolving ethical issues per-
taining to ethical decision making, professional values, managing and maintaining
boundaries, technology, the nonimposition of counselor personal values, counselor
education, and legal issues, to mention a few—all of which were in response to
recent developments in the field (Kaplan et al., 2017). A new section of the code cov-
ers informed consent, privacy, and security of electronic communications, distance
counseling, online and research maintenance, and social media. Most professional
associations revise their ethics codes every 5 to 10 years. It is necessary that the
standards reflect changes in the profession and evolving social trends.
However useful the ethics codes may be, they can never replace the informed
judgment and goodwill of the individual counselor. We emphasize again the need
for a level of ethical functioning higher than merely following the letter of the law
or the code. For instance, you might avoid a lawsuit by not paying attention to
cultural diversity, but many of your ethnically diverse clients would likely suffer
from your insensitive professional behavior.

Introduction to Professional Ethics / 9

 Professional Monitoring of Practice
The legal and ethical practice of most mental health professionals is regulated
in all 50 states. State licensing laws establish the scope of practice of profession-
als and how these laws will be enforced by licensing boards. Some psychother-
apy professions are regulated through registration and certification; others, such
as social workers, marriage and family therapists, professional counselors, and
psychologists, are regulated through licensure. The major duties of regulating
boards are (1) to determine standards for admission into the profession, (2) to
screen applicants applying for certification or licensure, (3) to regulate the prac-
tice of psychotherapy for the public good, and (4) to conduct disciplinary pro-
ceedings involving violations of standards of professional conduct as defined
by law. M­ ental health professionals can lose their certification or license if their
state regulating board finds that they have engaged in unethical practice or illegal
behavior, whether personally or professionally. The topic of licensure is treated in
more detail in Chapter 8.
In addition to state regulatory boards, most professional organizations have
ethics committees—elected or delegated bodies that oversee the conduct of mem-
bers of the organization. The main purposes of ethics committees are to educate
the association’s membership about ethics codes and to protect the public from
unethical practices. These committees meet regularly to process formal complaints
against individual members of the professional organization, and they also revise
and update their organization’s code of ethics.
When necessary, practitioners must explain to clients how to lodge an eth-
ical complaint. When a complaint is lodged against a member, the committee
launches an investigation and deliberates on the case. Eventually, a disposi-
tion is reached. The complaint may be dismissed, specific charges within the
complaint may be dismissed, or the committee may find that ethical standards
have been violated and impose sanctions. Possible sanctions include a repri-
mand; a recommendation that a specific course of remedial action be taken,
such as obtaining ongoing supervision or personal therapy; probation or sus-
pension for a specified period of time; a recommendation that the member be
allowed to resign from the organization; or a recommendation that the member
be expelled.
Expulsion or suspension of a member is a major sanction. Members have
the right to appeal the committee’s decision. Once the appeals process has been
completed or the deadline for appeal has passed, the sanctions of suspension
and expulsion are communicated in writing to the members of the professional
organization. Practitioners who are expelled from the association also may face
the loss of their license or certificate to practice, but only if the state board con-
ducts an independent investigation. Cases that result in expulsion are often seri-
ous enough to involve law enforcement and criminal charges. Many cases also
result in civil court proceedings, which are usually published in the local press.
Mental health professionals facing ethics violations may believe they were not
given fair treatment by the ethics committee, and in such cases they can respond
with their perspective.

10 / chapter 1
Ethical Decision Making
Some Key Terms
Professional mental health workers are designated by a variety of terms: mental
health professional, practitioner, therapist, counselor, social worker, school counselor, reha-
bilitation counselor, addictions counselor, community worker, couples and family ther-
apist, helper, and clinician. Throughout this book, we generally use these terms
interchangeably, reflecting the differing nomenclature of the various professions.
Although values and ethics are frequently used interchangeably, the two
terms are not identical. Values pertains to beliefs and attitudes that provide direc-
tion to everyday living, whereas ethics pertains to the beliefs we hold about what
constitutes right conduct. Ethics are moral principles adopted by an individual or
group to provide rules for right conduct. Morality is concerned with perspectives
of right and proper conduct and involves an evaluation of actions on the basis of
some broader cultural context or religious standard.
Ethics represents aspirational goals, or the maximum or ideal standards set
by the profession, practiced through your professional behavior and interactions
(Remley & Herlihy, 2016). Codes of ethics are conceptually broad in nature and
generally subject to interpretation by practitioners. Although these minimum and
maximum standards may differ, they are not necessarily in conflict.
Community standards (or mores) vary on interdisciplinary, theoretical, and
geographical bases. The standard for a counselor’s social contact with clients may
be different in a large urban area than in a rural area, or between practitioners
employing a humanistic versus a behavioral approach. Community standards
often become the ultimate legal criteria for determining whether practitioners are
liable for damages. Community standards define what is considered reasonable
behavior when a case involving malpractice is litigated. Courts have consistently
found that mental health care providers have a duty to exercise a reasonable degree
of skill, knowledge, and care. Reasonableness is usually defined as the care that is
ordinarily exercised by others practicing within that specialty in the professional
community.
Professionalism has some relationship to ethical behavior, yet it is possible
to act unprofessionally and still not act unethically. For instance, not returning a
client’s telephone calls promptly might be viewed as unprofessional, but it would
probably not be considered unethical unless the client were in crisis.
Some situations cut across these concepts. For example, sexual intimacy between
counselors and clients is considered unethical, unprofessional, immoral, and illegal.
Keep the differences in the meanings of these various concepts in mind as you read.

Levels of Ethical Practice LO5

One way of conceptualizing professional ethics is to contrast mandatory ethics

with aspirational ethics. Mandatory ethics describes a level of ethical functioning
wherein counselors act in compliance with minimal standards, acknowledging the

Introduction to Professional Ethics / 11

 basic “musts” and “must nots.” The focus is on behavioral rules, such as providing
for informed consent in professional relationships. Aspirational ethics describes
the highest standards of thinking and conduct professional counselors seek, and it
requires that counselors do more than simply meet the letter of the ethics code. It
entails an understanding of the spirit behind the code and the principles on which
the code rests. Each section in the ACA’s Code of Ethics (2014) begins with an intro-
duction, which sets the tone and addresses what counselors should aspire to with
regard to ethical practice. Practitioners who comply at the first level, mandatory
ethics, are generally safe from legal action in courts of law or professional censure
by state licensure boards. At the higher level of ethical functioning, aspirational
ethics, practitioners go further and reflect on the effects their interventions may
have on the welfare of their clients. An example of aspirational ethics is provid-
ing services for no fees (pro bono) for those in the community who cannot afford
needed services.
Positive ethics focuses not only on how professionals can harm clients but
on how therapists can do better at helping clients. Instead of focusing on a reme-
dial approach to dealing with an ethical matter, positive ethics requires “anchor-
ing all professional behavior and decisions in an overarching ethical philosophy
of what psychologists can be, not simply avoiding what they should not do”
(Knapp et al., 2015, p. 7). The goal of positive ethics shifts the emphasis of mental
health providers away from a focus on wrongdoing and disciplinary actions and
toward an articulated vision of the highest level of practice (Knapp & Vande-
Creek, 2012).
When the word unethical is used, people think of extreme violations of estab-
lished codes. In reality, most violations of ethics probably happen quite inadver-
tently in clinical practice. The ethics codes of most professional organizations
require practitioners to engage in self-monitoring and to take responsibility for
misconduct. Welfel (2005) indicates that the professional literature focuses on pre-
venting misconduct and on responding to serious ethical violations. However, the
literature has not offered much guidance regarding minor infractions committed
by professionals. Welfel states that by taking minor ethical violations seriously and
by seeking honest ways to remediate such infractions, counselors can demonstrate
their professionalism and personal commitment to benefiting those they serve.
Welfel’s (2005) model progresses from awareness, through reflection, to a plan
of action whereby counselors can ethically repair damage when they recognize
they have violated ethics codes in minor ways. She emphasizes that the first step
in recovering from an ethical violation is for the practitioner to recognize that he
or she has acted in a way that is likely to be ethically problematic. If a practi-
tioner is not aware of the subtle ways his or her behavior can adversely affect the
client, such behavior can go unnoticed, and the client will suffer. For instance, a
professional who is struggling financially in her private practice may prolong the
therapy of her clients and justify her actions on theoretical grounds. She is likely
to ignore the fact that the prolongation of therapy is influenced by her financial
situation.
Practitioners can easily find themselves in an ethical quagmire based on
competing role expectations. The best way to maintain a clear ethical position is
to focus on your clients’ best interests. School counselors may be so focused on

12 / chapter 1
academic and scheduling issues that they do not reach out to the community and
develop the network with other helping professionals needed to make productive
referrals for families and students in crises. In school systems teachers and others
sometimes label students and families as dysfunctional or unmotivated. The coun-
selor needs to advocate and help others look for strengths and reframe limitations
if progress is to be made. The counselor can be an ethical model in a system where
ethics is not given much consideration.
Clients’ needs are best met when practitioners monitor their own ethics. Eth-
ical violations may go undetected because only the individual who committed
the violation knows about it. Rather than just looking at others and proclaiming
“That’s unethical!” we encourage you to honestly examine your own thinking
and apply guidelines to your behavior by asking yourself, “Is what I am doing
in the best interests of my clients? Would the codes of my professional organiza-
tion agree? Am I practicing my own self-care and maintaining healthy boundaries
in the decisions I am making with my clients?” Self-evaluation and reflection is
an ongoing process that both benefits our clients and enriches our personal and
professional growth.

Principle Ethics and Virtue Ethics LO6

Several writers have developed models for ethical decision making, including
­Barnett and Johnson (2008, 2015), Cottone (2001), Cottone and Tarvydas (2016),
­Forester-Miller and Davis (2016), Frame and Williams (2005), Kitchener (1984),
Knapp and colleagues (2015), Knapp and VandeCreek (2012), Koocher and Keith-
Spiegel (2016), Meara, Schmidt, and Day (1996), Welfel (2016), and Wheeler and
Bertram (2015). This section is based on an amalgamation of elements from these
various models and our own views.
In a key article titled “Principles and Virtues: A Foundation for Ethical Deci-
sions, Policies, and Character,” Meara and colleagues (1996) differentiate between
principle ethics and virtue ethics. Principle ethics is a set of obligations and a
method that focuses on moral issues with the goals of (a) solving a particular
dilemma or set of dilemmas and (b) establishing a framework to guide future eth-
ical thinking and behavior. Principles typically focus on acts and choices, and they
are used to facilitate the selection of socially and historically acceptable answers to
the question “What shall I do?”
A thorough grounding in principle ethics opens the way for another important
perspective, virtue ethics. Virtue ethics focuses on the character traits of the coun-
selor and nonobligatory ideals to which professionals aspire rather than on solv-
ing specific ethical dilemmas. Simply stated, principle ethics asks “Is this situation
unethical?” whereas virtue ethics asks “Am I doing what is best for my client?”
Even in the absence of an ethical dilemma, virtue ethics compels the professional
to be conscious of ethical behavior. Meara and her colleagues maintain that it is not
a question of subscribing to one or the other form of ethics. Rather, professional
counselors should strive to integrate virtue ethics and principle ethics to reach
better ethical decisions and policies.
Some mental health practitioners concern themselves primarily with avoiding
malpractice suits. They tend to commit themselves to a rule-bound approach to

Introduction to Professional Ethics / 13

 ethics as a way to stay out of trouble. Other professionals, although concerned
with avoiding litigation, are first and foremost interested in doing what is best for
their clients. These professionals would consider it unethical to use techniques
that might not result in the greatest benefit to their clients or to use techniques in
which they were not thoroughly trained, even though these techniques might not
lead to a lawsuit.
Meara and colleagues (1996) identify four core virtues—prudence, integrity,
respectfulness, and benevolence—that are appropriate for professionals to adhere
to in making ethical decisions. They also describe five characteristics of virtuous
professionals, which they see as being at the heart of virtue ethics:
• Virtuous agents are motivated to do what is right because they judge it to be
right, not just because they feel obligated or fear the consequences.
• Virtuous agents rely on vision and discernment, which involve sensitivity,
judgment, and understanding that lead to decisive action.
• Virtuous agents have compassion and are sensitive to the suffering of others.
They are able to take actions to reduce their clients’ pain.
• Virtuous agents are self-aware. They know how their assumptions, convic-
tions, and biases are likely to affect their interactions with others.
• Virtuous agents are connected with and understand the mores of their com-
munity and the importance of community in moral decision making, policy
setting, and character development. They understand the ideals and expecta-
tions of their community.
Virtue ethics focuses on ideals rather than obligations and on the character of
the professional rather than on the action itself. To meet the goals, ideals, and needs
of the community being served, consider both principles and virtues because both
are important elements in thinking through ethical concerns.

A Case of Positive Ethics

Your client, Kevin, is making good progress in his counseling with you. Then he informs you
that he has lost his job and will not be able to continue seeing you because of his inability to
pay your fees. Here is how four different therapists handled a similar situation.

Therapist A: I’m sorry but I can’t continue seeing you without payment. I’m giving you the
name of a local community clinic that provides low-cost treatment.

Therapist B: I don’t usually see people without payment, but I appreciate the difficulty you find
yourself in. I’ll continue to see you, and you pay whatever portion of my fee you can afford.

Therapist C: I suggest that you put therapy on hold until you can financially afford it.

Therapist D: I can’t afford to see you without payment, but I am willing to suggest an alterna-
tive plan. Continue writing in your journal, and once a month I will see you for half an hour
to discuss your journal. You pay what you can afford for these sessions. When your financial
situation has been corrected, we can continue therapy as usual.

• How do you react to the various therapists’ responses?

• Which response appeals to you and why?
• Can you think of another response?

14 / chapter 1
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
Story! God bless you! I have none to tell, sir;
Only, last night, a-drinking at the Chequers,
This poor old hat and breeches, as you see, were
Torn in a scuffle.

Constables came up for to take me into

Custody; they took me before the justice;
Justice Oldmixon put me into the parish
Stocks for a vagrant.

I should be glad to drink your honor’s health in

A pot of beer, if you will give me sixpence;
But for my part, I never love to meddle
With politics, sir.
FRIEND TO HUMANITY

I give thee sixpence! I will see thee damned first,—

Wretch! whom no sense of wrongs can rouse to vengeance,—
Sordid, unfeeling, reprobate, degraded,
Spiritless outcast!

(Kicks the knife-grinder, overturns his wheel, and exit in a transport of

republican enthusiasm and universal philanthropy.)

Robert Burns, one of the chief names in Scottish literature, has

been called the Dictionary of Poetical Quotations.
Byron said, “The rank of Burns is the very first of his art”; and the
many-sided Scotchman had both admirers and detractors galore.
It has been noted that the Scotch have a sense of humor,
“because it is a gift.” Burns’ sense of humor secures for him a high
place among humorists, and though coarse in his expressions, he is
not intentionally vulgar.

HOLY WILLIE’S PRAYER

Holy Willie was a small farmer, leading elder to Dr. Auld, austere in speech,
scrupulous to all outward appearances, a professing Christian. He experienced,
however, “a sore fall”; he was “found out” to be a hypocrite after Burns’ castigation,
and was expelled the church for embezzling the money of the poor of the parish.
His name was William Fisher.

O Thou, wha in the Heavens dost dwell,

Wha, as it pleases best thysel’,
Sends ane to Heaven and ten to Hell,
A’ for thy glory,
And no for onie guid or ill
They’ve done afore thee.

I bless and praise thy matchless might,

Whan thousands thou hast left in night,
That I am here afore thy sight,
For gifts and grace,
A burning an’ a shining light
To a’ this place.

What was I, or my generation,

That I should get such exaltation?
I, wha deserve such just damnation,
For broken laws,
Five thousand years ’fore my creation,
Thro’ Adam’s cause.

When frae my mither’s womb I fell,

Thou might hae plung’d me into Hell,
To gnash my gums, to weep and wail
In burnin’ lake,
Where damned Devils roar and yell,
Chain’d to a stake.

Yet I am here a chosen sample,

To show thy grace is great and ample;
I’m here a pillar in thy temple,
Strong as a rock.
A guide, a buckler, an example,
To a’ thy flock.

O L—d, thou kens what zeal I bear,

When drinkers drink, and swearers swear,
And singin’ here, and dancing there,
Wi’ great and sma’:
For I am keepit by thy fear,
Free frae them a’.
But yet, O L—d! confess I must,
At times I’m fash’d wi’ fleshly lust,
An’ sometimes, too, wi’ warldly trust—
Vile self gets in;
But thou remembers we are dust,
Defil’d in sin.

O L—d! yestreen, thou kens, wi’ Meg—

Thy pardon I sincerely beg,
O! may it ne’er be a livin’ plague
To my dishonor,
An’ I’ll ne’er lift a lawless leg
Again upon her.

Besides, I farther maun allow,

Wi’ Lizzie’s lass, three times I trow;
But, L—d, that Friday I was fou,
When I came near her,
Or else thou kens thy servant true
Wad ne’er hae steer’d her.

May be thou lets this fleshly thorn

Beset thy servant e’en and morn,
Lest he owre high and proud should turn,
’Cause he’s sae gifted;
If sae, thy hand maun e’en be borne,
Until thou lift it.

L—d, bless thy chosen in this place,

For here thou hast a chosen race;
But G—d confound their stubborn face,
And blast their name,
Wha bring thine elders to disgrace,
An’ public shame.

L—d, mind Gawn Hamilton’s deserts,

He drinks, an swears, an’ plays at cartes,
Yet has sae monie takin’ arts,
Wi’ great and sma’,
Frae God’s ain priests the people’s hearts
He steals awa’.

An’ whan we chasten’d him therefore,

Thou kens how he bred sic a splore,
As set the warld in a roar
O’ laughin’ at us,
Curse thou his basket and his store,
Kail and potatoes.

L—d, hear my earnest cry an’ pray’r,

Against that presbyt’ry o’ Ayr;
Thy strong right hand, L—d, make it bare,
Upo’ their heads;
L—d, weigh it down, and dinna spare,
For their misdeeds.

O L—d, my G—d, that glib-tongued Aiken,

My very heart and saul are quakin’,
To think how we stood sweatin’, shakin’,
An’ swat wi’ dread,
While he wi’ hingin’ lips gaed snakin’,
And hid his head.

L—d, in the day of vengeance try him,

L—d, visit them wha did employ him,
And pass not in thy mercy by ’em,
Nor hear their pray’r;
But, for thy people’s sake, destroy ’em,
And dinna spare.

But, L—d, remember me and mine

Wi’ mercies temp’ral and divine,
That I for gear and grace may shine,
Excelled by nane,
An’ a’ the glory shall be thine,
Amen, Amen.

ADDRESS TO THE TOOTHACHE

My curse upon thy venomed stang,
That shoots my tortured gums alang;
An’ through my lugs gies mony a twang,
Wi’ gnawing vengeance!
Tearing my nerves wi’ bitter pang,
Like racking engines.

When fevers burn, or ague freezes,

Rheumatics gnaw, or cholic squeezes;
Our neighbor’s sympathy may ease us,
Wi’ pitying moan;
But thee,—thou hell o’ a’ diseases,
Aye mocks our groan.

Adown my beard the slavers trickle;

I throw the wee stools o’er the mickle,
As round the fire the giglets keckle
To see me loup;
While, raving mad, I wish a heckle
Were in their doup.

O’ a’ the numerous human dools,

Ill har’sts, daft bargains, cutty-stools,
Or worthy friends raked i’ the mools,
Sad sight to see!
The tricks o’ knaves or fash o’ fools,
Thou bear’st the gree.

Where’er that place be priests ca’ hell,

Whence a’ the tones o’ mis’ry yell,
And rankèd plagues their numbers tell,
In dreadfu’ raw,
Thou, Toothache, surely bear’st the bell,
Among them a’;

O thou grim mischief-making chiel,

That gars the notes of discord squeal,
Till daft mankind aft dance a reel
In gore a shoe-thick!—
Gie a’ the faes o’ Scotland’s weal
A fowmond’s Toothache!

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

Quite lately, a well known humorist of the present day was making
an after dinner speech. A voice from the audience called out,
“Louder!—and funnier!”
Some such voice must have called out to the World’s Humor at
the close of the Eighteenth Century, for the beginning of the
Nineteenth finds the Humorous element in literature decidedly louder
and funnier.
The Romantic Revival which at this time affected all literature and
art has been called both the effect and the cause of the French
Revolution.
It has also been called the Renascence of Wonder, and as such it
let loose hitherto hidebound fancies and imaginations on boundless
and limitless flights. In these flights Humor showed speed and
endurance quite equal to those of Romance or Poesy.
Both in energy and methods, Humor came to the front with
tremendous strides. In quality and quantity it forged ahead, both as a
component part of more serious writings and also independently.
And while this was a consummation devoutly to be wished, it
makes harder the task of the Outliner.
Many great writers held to the conviction that in Romantic poetry
humor has no place. Others were avowed comic writers of verse or
prose. But others still allowed humor to meet and mingle with their
numbers, to a greater or less degree.
And the difficulty of selection lies in the fact that the incidental
humor is often funnier than the entirely humorous concept.
It is hard to omit such as Jane Austen, Sir Walter Scott, William
Wordsworth, yet quotations from their works, showing their
humorous vein, would occupy space demanded by the humorists
themselves.
So, let us start in boldly with Sydney Smith, one of the most
popular wits of all ages.
Aside from this author’s epigrams and witty sayings, he wrote with
great wisdom and insight about the principles of humor itself, from
which we quote his sapient remarks on punning.
“It is imagined that wit is a sort of inexplicable visitation, that it
comes and goes with the rapidity of lightning, and that it is quite as
unattainable as beauty or just proportion. I am so much of a contrary
way of thinking, that I am convinced a man might sit down as
systematically and as successfully, to the study of wit as he might to
the study of mathematics; and I would answer for it that by giving up
only six hours a day to being witty, he should come on prodigiously
before midsummer, so that his friends should hardly know him again.
For what is there to hinder the mind from gradually acquiring a habit
of attending to the lighter relations of ideas in which wit consists?
Punning grows upon everybody, and punning is the wit of words. I do
not mean to say that it is so easy to acquire a habit of discovering
new relations in ideas as in words, but the difficulty is not so much
greater as to render it insuperable to habit. One man is
unquestionably much better calculated for it by nature than another;
but association, which gradually makes a bad speaker a good one,
might give a man wit who had it not, if any man chose to be so
absurd as to sit down to acquire it.
“I have mentioned puns. They are, I believe, what I have
denominated them—the wit of words. They are exactly the same to
words which wit is to ideas, and consist in the sudden discovery of
relations in language. A pun, to be perfect in its kind, should contain
two distinct meanings; the one common and obvious, the other more
remote; and in the notice which the mind takes of the relation
between these two sets of words, and in the surprise which that
relation excites, the pleasure of a pun consists. Miss Hamilton, in her
book on Education, mentions the instance of a boy so very neglectful
that he could never be brought to read the word patriarchs; but
whenever he met with it he always pronounced it partridges. A friend
of the writer observed to her that it could hardly be considered as a
mere piece of negligence, for it appeared to him that the boy, in
calling them partridges, was making game of the patriarchs. Now
here are two distinct meanings contained in the same phrase: for to
make game of the patriarchs is to laugh at them; or to make game of
them is by a very extravagant and laughable sort of ignorance of
words, to rank them among pheasants, partridges, and other such
delicacies, which the law takes under its protection and calls game:
and the whole pleasure derived from this pun consists in the sudden
discovery that two such different meanings are referable to one form
of expression. I have very little to say about puns; they are in very
bad repute, and so they ought to be. The wit of language is so
miserably inferior to the wit of ideas that it is very deservedly driven
out of good company. Sometimes, indeed, a pun makes its
appearance which seems for a moment to redeem its species; but
we must not be deceived by them: it is a radically bad race of wit. By
unremitting persecution, it has been at last got under, and driven into
cloisters—from whence it must never again be suffered to emerge
into the light of the world. One invaluable blessing produced by the
banishment of punning is an immediate reduction of the number of
wits. It is a wit of so low an order, and in which some sort of progress
is so easily made, that the number of those endowed with the gift of
wit would be nearly equal to those endowed with the gift of speech.
The condition of putting together ideas in order to be witty operates
much in the same salutary manner as the condition of finding rhymes
in poetry;—it reduces the number of performers to those who have
vigour enough to overcome incipient difficulties, and make a sort of
provision that that which need not be done at all should be done well
whenever it is done.”

This quotation from one of Sydney Smith’s Speeches is

characteristic of his style.

MRS. PARTINGTON

I do not mean to be disrespectful, but the attempt of the Lords to

stop the progress of reform reminds me very forcibly of the great
storm of Sidmouth, and of the conduct of the excellent Mrs.
Partington on that occasion. In the winter of 1824 there set in a great
flood upon that town—the tide rose to an incredible height—the
waves rushed in upon the houses—and everything was threatened
with destruction. In the midst of this sublime storm, Dame Partington,
who lived upon the beach, was seen at the door of her house with
mop and pattens, trundling her mop, and squeezing out the
seawater, and vigorously pushing away the Atlantic Ocean. The
Atlantic was roused; Mrs. Partington’s spirit was up; but I need not
tell you that the contest was unequal. The Atlantic Ocean beat Mrs.
Partington. She was excellent at a slop or a puddle, but she should
not have meddled with a tempest.—(From a Speech at Taunton in
1831.)
And we add the ever popular Recipe for a Salad.
SALAD
To make this condiment, your poet begs
The pounded yellow of two hard-boiled eggs.
Two boiled potatoes, passed through kitchen-sieve,
Smoothness and softness to the salad give.
Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl,
And, half-suspected, animate the whole.
Of mordant mustard add a single spoon,
Distrust the condiment that bites so soon;
But deem it not, thou man of herbs, a fault,
To add a double quantity of salt.
And, lastly, o’er the flavoured compound toss
A magic soup-spoon of anchovy sauce.
Oh, green and glorious! Oh, herbaceous treat!
’Twould tempt the dying anchorite to eat;
Back to the world he’d turn his fleeting soul,
And plunge his fingers in the salad bowl!
Serenely full, the epicure would say,
Fate cannot harm me, I have dined to-day!

Charles Lamb, beloved alike of the humorous and serious

minded, disagrees with Sydney Smith regarding the pun.
His opinion,
“A pun is a noble thing per se. It is a sole digest of reflection; it is
entire; it fills the mind; it is as perfect as a sonnet—better. It limps
ashamed in the train and retinue of humour; it knows it should have
an establishment of its own.”
is shown in this instance.
Lamb was reserved among strangers. A friend, about to introduce
him to a circle of new faces, said, “Now will you promise, Lamb, not
to be as sheepish as usual?” Charles replied, with a rustic air, “I
wool.”
 Such masterpieces as Lamb’s Dissertation Upon Roast Pig, and
his Farewell to Tobacco are too lengthy to quote. We give some of
his shorter witty allusions.

Coleridge went to Germany, and left word to Lamb that if he

wished any information on any subject, he might apply to him (i.e.,
by letter), so Lamb sent him the following abstruse propositions, to
which, however, Coleridge did not deign an answer.

Whether God loves a dying angel better than a true man?

Whether the archangel Uriel could knowingly affirm an untruth,

and whether, if he could, he would?

Whether the higher order of seraphim illuminati ever sneeze?

Whether an immortal and amenable soul may not come to be

damned at last, and the man never suspect it beforehand?
Good Actions.—The greatest pleasure I know is to do a good
action by stealth, and to have it found out by accident.
 Paying for Things.—One cannot bear to pay for articles he used
to get for nothing. When Adam laid out his first penny upon
nonpareils at some stall in Mesopotamia, I think it went hard with
him, reflecting upon his old goodly orchard, where he had so many
for nothing.

Nothing to do.—Positively the best thing a man can have to do

is nothing, and, next to that, perhaps, good works.

Robert Southey, though one time Poet Laureate, is not to be too

highly rated as a writer. His humorous poems are largely of the
“jagged categorical” type, and are whimseys rather than wit.
Notwithstanding the aspersion even then cast upon the pun, he
regards it as a legitimate vehicle.

THE TEN LOST TRIBES OF ISRAEL

That the lost ten tribes of Israel may be found in London, is a

discovery which any person may suppose he has made, when he
walks for the first time from the city to Wapping. That the tribes of
Judah and Benjamin nourish there is known to all mankind; and from
them have sprung the Scripites, and the Omniumites, and the
Threepercentites.
But it is not so well known that many other tribes noticed in the
Old Testament are to be found in this island of Great Britain.
There are the Hittites, who excel in one branch of gymnastics.
And there are the Amorites, who are to be found in town and
country; and there are the Gadites, who frequent watering-places,
and take picturesque tours.
Among the Gadites I shall have some of my best readers, who
being in good humour with themselves and with everything else,
except on a rainy day, will even then be in good humour with me.
There will be the Amorites in their company; and among the
Amorites, too, there will be some who in the overflowing of their love,
will have some liking to spare for the doctor and his faithful
memorialist.
The poets, those especially who deal in erotics, lyrics,
sentimentals, or sonnets, are the Ah-oh-ites.
The gentlemen who speculate in chapels are the Puhites.
The chief seat of the Simeonites is at Cambridge; but they are
spread over the land. So are the Man-ass-ites, of whom the finest
specimens are to be seen in St. James’s Street, at the fashionable
time of day for exhibiting the dress and the person upon the
pavement.
The freemasons are of the family of the Jachinites.
The female Haggites are to be seen, in low life wheeling barrows,
and in high life seated at card-tables.
The Shuhamites are the cordwainers.
The Teamanites attend the sales of the East India Company.
Sir James Mackintosh, and Sir James Scarlett, and Sir James
Graham belong to the Jim-nites.
Who are the Gazathites, if the people of London are not, where
anything is to be seen? All of them are the Gettites when they can,
all would be Havites if they could.
The journalists should be Geshurites, if they answered to their
profession; instead of this they generally turn out to be
Geshuwrongs.
There are, however, three tribes in England, not named in the Old
Testament, who considerably outnumber all the rest. These are the
High Vulgarites, who are the children of Rahank and Phashan, the
Middle Vulgarites, who are the children of Mammon and Terade, and
the Low Vulgarities, who are the children of Tahag, Rahag, and
Bohobtay-il.
 —From “The Doctor.”
THE WELL OF ST. KEYNE
A well there is in the West country,
And a clearer one never was seen;
There is not a wife in the West country
But has heard of the Well of St. Keyne.

An oak and an elm tree stand beside,

And behind does an ash-tree grow,
And a willow from the bank above
Droops to the water below.

A traveller came to the Well of St. Keyne;

Pleasant it was to his eye,
For from cock-crow he had been travelling,
And there was not a cloud in the sky.

He drank of the water so cool and clear,

For thirsty and hot was he,
And he sat down upon the bank,
Under the willow-tree.

There came a man from the neighboring town

At the well to fill his pail,
On the well-side he rested it,
And bade the stranger hail.

“Now art thou a bachelor, stranger?” quoth he,

“For an if thou hast a wife,
The happiest draught thou hast drank this day
That ever thou didst in thy life.

“O has your good woman, if one you have,

In Cornwall ever been?
For an if she have, I’ll venture my life
She has drunk of the Well of St. Keyne.”

“I have left a good woman who never was here,”

The stranger he made reply;
“But that my draught should be better for that,
I pray you answer me why.”

“St. Keyne,” quoth the countryman, “many a time

 Drank of this crystal well,
And before the angel summoned her
She laid on the water a spell.

“If the husband of this gifted well

Shall drink before his wife,
A happy man thenceforth is he,
For he shall be master for life.

“But if the wife should drink of it first,

Heaven help the husband then!”
The stranger stooped to the Well of St. Keyne,
And drank of the waters again.

“You drank of the well, I warrant, betimes?”

He to the countryman said.
But the countryman smiled as the stranger spake,
And sheepishly shook his head.

“I hastened, as soon as the wedding was done,

And left my wife in the porch.
But i’ faith, she had been wiser than me,
For she took a bottle to church.”

Theodore Hook, recorded as “a playwright, a punster and a

practical joker,” also gives a dissertation on puns and a bit of helpful
advice.

“Personal deformities or constitutional calamities are always to be

laid hold of. If anybody tells you that a dear friend has lost his sight,
observe that it will make him more hospitable than ever, since now
he would be glad to see anybody. If a clergyman breaks his leg,
remark that he is no longer a clergyman, but a lame man. If a poet is
seized with apoplexy, affect to disbelieve it, though you know it to be
true, in order to say, ‘Poeta nascitur non fit’; and then, to carry the
joke one step farther, add that “it is not a fit subject for a jest.” A man
falling into a tan-pit you may call ‘sinking in the sublime’; a climbing
boy suffocated in a chimney meets with a sootable death; and a
pretty girl having caught the small-pox is to be much pitted. On the
subject of the ear and its defects, talk first of something in which a
cow sticks, and end by telling the story of the man who, having taken
great pains to explain something to his companion, at last got into a
rage at his apparent stupidity, and exclaimed, ‘Why, my dear sir,
don’t you comprehend? The thing is as plain as A B C.’ ‘I dare say it
is,’ said the other, ‘but I am D E F.’
“It may be as well to give the beginner something of a notion of
the use he may make of the most ordinary words, for the purposes of
quibbleism.
“The loss of a hat is always felt; if you don’t like sugar you may
lump it; a glazier is a panes-taking man; candles are burnt because
wick-ed things always come to light; a lady who takes you home
from a party is kind in her carriage, and you say “nunc est ridendum”
when you step into it; if it happens to be a chariot, she is a charitable
person; birds’-nests and king-killing are synonymous, because they
are high trees on; a Bill for building a bridge should be sanctioned by
the Court of Arches, as well as the House of Piers; when a man is
dull, he goes to the sea-side to Brighton; a Cockney lover, when
sentimental, should live in Heigh Hoburn; the greatest fibber is the
man most to re-lie upon; a dean expecting a bishopric looks for lawn;
a suicide kills pigs, and not himself; a butcher is a gross man, but a
fig-seller is a grocer; Joshua never had a father or mother, because
he was the son of Nun; your grandmother and your great-
grandmother were your aunt’s sisters; a leg of mutton is better than
heaven, because nothing is better than heaven, and a leg of mutton
is better than nothing; races are matters of course; an ass can never
be a horse, although he may be a mayor; the Venerable Bede was
the mother of Pearl; a baker makes bread when he kneads it; a
doctor cannot be a doctor all at once, because he comes to it by
degrees; a man hanged at Newgate has taken a drop too much; the
bridle day is that on which a man leads a woman to the halter. Never
mind the aspirate; punning’s all fair, as the archbishop said in the
dream.
“Puns interrogatory are at times serviceable. You meet a man
carrying a hare; ask him if it is his own hare, or a wig—there you
stump him. Why is Parliament Street like a compendium? Because it
goes to a bridge. Why is a man murdering his mother in a garret a
worthy person? Because he is above committing a crime. Instances
of this kind are innumerable. If you want to render your question
particularly pointed, you are, after asking it once or twice, to say
‘D’ye give it up?’ Then favour your friends with the solution.”

Richard Harris Barham, author of the Ingoldsby Legends, was an

intimate friend of Hook.
Like many another true humorist he was of the clergy, being a
minor canon of St. Paul’s cathedral.
His delightful tales are too long to quote, and only some shorter
pieces may be given.
Barham was among the first to raise parody to a recognized art.

A “TRUE AND ORIGINAL” VERSION

In the autumn of 1824, Captain Medwin having hinted that certain beautiful lines
on the burial of Sir John Moore might have been the production of Lord Byron’s
muse, the late Mr. Sidney Taylor, somewhat indignantly, claimed them for their
rightful owner, the Rev. Charles Wolfe. During the controversy a third claimant
started up in the person of a soi-disant “Doctor Marshall,” who turned out to be a
Durham blacksmith, and his pretensions a hoax. It was then that a certain “Dr.
Peppercorn” put forth his pretensions, to what he averred was the only “true and
original” version, viz.—

Not a sous had he got,—not a guinea or note,

And he looked confoundedly flurried,
As he bolted away without paying his shot,
And the landlady after him hurried.

We saw him again at dead of night,

When home from the Club returning;
We twigged the Doctor beneath the light
Of the gas-lamp brilliantly burning.

All bare, and exposed to the midnight dews,

 Reclined in the gutter we found him;
And he looked like a gentleman taking a snooze,
With his Marshall cloak around him.

“The Doctor’s as drunk as the devil,” we said,

And we managed a shutter to borrow;
We raised him, and sighed at the thought that his head
Would “consumedly ache” on the morrow.

We bore him home, and we put him to bed,

And we told his wife and his daughter
To give him, next morning a couple of red
Herrings, with soda water.—

Loudly they talked of his money that’s gone,

And his Lady began to upbraid him;
But little he reck’d, so they let him snore on
’Neath the counterpane just as we laid him.

We tuck’d him in, and had hardly done

When, beneath the window calling,
We heard the rough voice of a son of a gun
Of a watchman “One o’clock!” bawling.

Slowly and sadly we all walked down

From his room in the uppermost story;
A rushlight we placed on the cold hearthstone,
And we left him alone in his glory.

RAISING THE DEVIL

A LEGEND OF CORNELIUS AGRIPPA
“And hast thou nerve enough?” he said,
That gray Old Man, above whose head
Unnumbered years had rolled,—
“And hast thou nerve to view,” he cried,
“The incarnate Fiend that Heaven defied!
—Art thou indeed so bold?

“Say, canst thou, with unshrinking gaze,

Sustain, rash youth, the withering blaze
Of that unearthly eye,
That blasts where’er it lights,—the breath
That, like the Simoom, scatters death
 On all that yet can die!

—“Darest thou confront that fearful form

That rides the whirlwind and the storm,
In wild unholy revel!
The terrors of that blasted brow,
Archangel’s once,—though ruined now—
—Ay,—dar’st thou face The Devil?”

“I dare!” the desperate youth replied,

And placed him by that Old Man’s side,
In fierce and frantic glee,
Unblenched his cheek, and firm his limb:
—“No paltry juggling Fiend, but Him,
—The Devil! I fain would see!—

“In all his Gorgon terrors clad,

His worst, his fellest shape!” the Lad
Rejoined in reckless tone.—
—“Have then thy wish!” Agrippa said,
And sighed, and shook his hoary head,
With many a bitter groan.

He drew the Mystic circle’s bound,

With skull and cross-bones fenced around;
He traced full many a sigil there;
He muttered many a backward pray’r,
That sounded like a curse—
“He comes!”—he cried with wild grimace,
“The fellest of Apollyon’s race!”—
—Then in his startled pupil’s face
He dashed—an Empty Purse!!

Thomas De Quincey, one of the best of humorists wrote

Confessions of an Opium Eater, with alas, all the necessary
conditions to speak at first hand.
His clever essay, Murder as a Fine Art, we trust, was not founded
on facts. This delightful bit of foolery, one of his many witty effusions,
can be given only in part.

MURDER AS ONE OF THE FINE ARTS

 The first murder is familiar to you all. As the inventor of murder,
and the father of the art, Cain must have been a man of first-rate
genius. All the Cains were men of genius. Tubal Cain invented tubes,
I think, or some such thing. But, whatever might be the originality
and genius of the artist, every art was then in its infancy, and the
works must be criticised with the recollection of that fact. Even
Tubal’s work would probably be little approved at this day in
Sheffield; and therefore of Cain (Cain senior, I mean) it is no
disparagement to say, that his performance was but so-so. Milton,
however, is supposed to have thought differently. By his way of
relating the case, it should seem to have been rather a pet murder
with him, for he retouches it with an apparent anxiety for its
picturesque effect:
“Whereat he inly raged; and, as they talk’d,
Smote him into the midriff with a stone
That beat out life. He fell; and, deadly pale,
Groan’d out his soul with gushing blood effused.”

Upon this, Richardson the painter, who had an eye for effect,
remarks as follows, in his Notes on Paradise Lost, p. 497: “It has
been thought,” says he, “that Cain beat—as the common saying is—
the breath out of his brother’s body with a great stone; Milton gives
in to this, with the addition, however, of a large wound.”

But it is time that I should say a few words about the principles of
murder, not with a view to regulate your practice, but your judgment.
As to old women, and the mob of newspaper readers, they are
pleased with anything, provided it is bloody enough; but the mind of
sensibility requires something more. First, then, let us speak of the
kind of person who is adapted to the purpose of the murderer;
secondly, of the place where; thirdly, of the time when, and other
little circumstances.
As to the person, I suppose that it is evident that he ought to be a
good man; because, if he were not, he might himself, by possibility,
be contemplating murder at the very time; and such “diamond-cut-
diamond” tussles, though pleasant enough when nothing better is
stirring, are really not what a critic can allow himself to call murders.

The subject chosen ought to be in good health: for it is absolutely

barbarous to murder a sick person, who is usually quite unable to
bear it. On this principle, no tailor ought to be chosen who is above
twenty-five, for after that age he is sure to be dyspeptic. Or at least, if
a man will hunt in that warren, he will of course think it his duty, on
the old established equation, to murder some multiple of 9—say 18,