About the Book
'Our inspiration for writing this book springs from a deep feeling for people and a grave concern that without a proper understanding of the reasons for their inhumanity in relation to one another and the development of a compassionate world view, it is likely that human beings may eventually destroy themselves and life on the planet. This work is an attempt to explain the source of destructive behaviour and how it manifests itself in personal relationships between men, women, couples, and families, and in the social arena. We present a position that offers a hope of altering the destiny of humankind's unethical behavior through better psychological understanding and education. Understanding the source of a person's aggressiveness in defending the fantasy bond and learning to cope with the voice process have strong implications for child-rearing and better mental health practices. Identifying destructive behaviours and faulty programming in family life and society, developing insight into the relationship between defences and aggressive responses, and offering a method to counteract destructive trends constitute a challenge to what many people consider to be humankinds basically unethical nature.' - From the Authors' Introduction
Table of Contents:
ContentsPart I: An Innovative Approach to EthicsPart II: Coping with Unethical Ways of LivingPart IV: Destructive LifestylesPart V: Ethical and Unethical Societal Practices
About the Author :
Robert W. Firestone, Ph.D., clinical psychologist, author, and artist, Dr. Firestone was in private practice of psychotherapy from 1957 to 1979. In 1979, he joined the Glendon Association as its consulting theorist. Dr. Firestone's major publications include The Fantasy Bond, Compassionate Child-Rearing, and Fear of Intimacy. Hisstudies of negative thought processes led to the development of an innovative therapeutic methodology described in Voice Therapy, Suicide and the Inner Voice, Combating Destructive Thought Processes, Creating a Life of Meaning and Compassion: The Wisdom of Psychotherapy and Sex and Love in Intimate Relationships. In collaboration with his daughter, Dr. Lisa Firestone he developed three assessment instruments: The Firestone Assessment of Self-Destructive Thoughts [FAST], The Firestone Assessment ofSuicide Intent [FASI] and the Firestone Assessment of Violent Thoughts [FAVT], for adolescents and adults, soon to be published (2008) by the Psychological Assessment Resources [PAR]Joyce Catlett, M.A., author/lecturer, is the co-author of Fear ofIntimacy, Psychological Defenses in Everyday Life, Conquer YourCritical Inner Voice, Creating a Life of Meaning & Compassion: TheWisdom of Psychotherapy and Sex and Love in Intimate Relationships.She has collaborated with Dr. Robert Firestone in writing twenty-fiveprofessional articles and eleven books, including The Fantasy Bond,Compassionate Child-Rearing and Voice Therapy. Since 1982, she has lectured on child-abuse prevention and couple relations. She has co-produced forty video productions for the Glendon Association in the areas of parent-child relations, suicide, couple relations, and Voice Therapy, she developed and trained instructors in the Compassionate Child-Rearing Parent Education Program throughout the U.S., Canada, and Costa Rica. She is a member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (AAMFT), and a frequent presenter on the topic of the critical inner voice and its implications for self-destructive behavior on an individual's interpersonal relationships.
Review :
'...a valuable and well-researched, solid contribution to the field of ethics... I found myself admiring the organization and thorough nature of the book. Also, it added to my conceptualization of the lives of more than a few of my own patients. It is a book in which one cannot help but recognize glimpses of family, friends and self. If nothing else, the authors have provided an illuminating mirror, with optimism and hope for correcting that which ails us as individuals and society as a whole.'- Meghan A. Harris in Bioethical Inquiry: 8 (2011)'This wonderful book rescues ethics from the dusty shelf of rules and abstractions. With sound scholarship, fresh thinking, and a friendly voice, Firestone and Catlett help us confront the most urgent questions of human existence and our relationships with each other. An invaluable resource to learn from, argue with, and think through who we are and want to be.'- Kenneth S. Pope, PhD, ABPP, author (with Melba Vasquez) of Ethics in Psychotherapy and Counseling: A Practical Guide'Firestone and Catlett provide a well-developed psychological explanation of unethical behavior. The enduring damage from early emotional deprivation and its patterned scars of personal defensiveness render any of us less able to treat others as we would want to be treated. Although not intended as an ethics text, the authors poignantly illustrate the moral philosophy of care ethics and the moral consequences of humans situated in uncaring worlds. Spouses, partners, parents, healthcare professionals, corporate executives, and political leaders may all benefit from a fresh reminder that more care in our personal interactions is the same model of ethics needed for global survival.'- Ronee Smith Griffith, PhD, Director, Relational Ethics Institute'In examining the ethics of interpersonal relationships Firestone and Catlett take a psychologist's aim at power, friendship, and transience and place them in a historical and pragmatic perspective. They posit the universal fear of mortality as an engine that ultimately generates interpersonal rifts as well as global abuses of power. By way of illustration, they describe their compassionate view of personal engagement in the "friendship circle", a 30-year, ongoing social experiment that neutralizes fear and aversive childhood conditioning. This is thought-provoking reading!'- Thomas F. Nagy, PhD, Independent practitioner in Palo Alto, California; author, Ethics in Plain English.'I was deeply moved by Robert Firestone's and Joyce Catlett's inspiration for writing this wise and insightful book. Each chapter is full of information and new insights, and the book as a whole points the reader to "a more satisfying and effective mode of existence, a lifestyle based on a non-defended, vulnerable, and feelingful approach to life." I whole-heartedly recommend the book to all readers, professional and lay alike, who are concerned with the deterioration of basic human ethics evident all around us.'- Professor Ayala Malach-Pines, Department Head, Ben-Gurion University, Israel'In a profoundly compassionate and elegant new book, The Ethics of Interpersonal Relationships (2009), Robert Firestone and Joyce Catlett present a broad psychological view on the source of unethical behavior.'- Ronee Smith Griffith, Ph.D., Ridgeview Institute's Magazine
