Abstract
The authors find it more useful to payattention to relationships than to boundaries.By focusing attention on bounded, individualpsychological issues, the metaphor ofboundaries can distract helping professionalsfrom thinking about inequities of power. Itoversimplifies a complex issue, inviting us toignore discourses around gender, race, class,culture, and the like that support injustice,abuse, and exploitation. Making boundaries acentral metaphor for ethical practice can keepus from critically examining the effects ofdistance, withdrawal, and non-participation.The authors describe how it is possible toexamine the practical, moral, and ethicaleffects of our participation in relationshipsby focusing on just relationships rather thanon boundaries. They give illustrations andclinical examples of relationally-focusedethical practices that derive from a narrativeapproach to therapy.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Epston D, White M. Experience, Contradiction, Narrative, and Imagination. Adelaide, South Australia: Dulwich Centre Publications, 1992.
Freedman J, Combs G. Narrative Therapy: The Social Construction of Preferred Realities. New York: Norton, 1996.
Monk G, Winslade J, Crocket K, Epston D, eds. Narrative Therapy in Practice: The Archaeology of Hope. New York: Jossey-Bass, 1997.
White M, Epston D. Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends. NewYork: W.W. Norton, 1990.
Zimmerman J, Dickerson V. If Problems Talked: Narrative Therapy in Action. New York: Guilford, 1996.
Combs G, Freedman J. Symbol, Story, and Ceremony: Using Metaphor in Individual and Family Therapy. New York: Norton, 1990.
Avis JM. The politics of functional family therapy: A feminist critique. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy 1985; 11: 127–138.
Carter E, Papp P, Silverstein O, Walters M. Mothers and sons, fathers and daughters. Monograph Series 2(1).Washington: The Women's Project in Family Therapy, 1984.
Gilligan C. In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982.
Goldner V. Feminism and family therapy. Family Process 1985; 24: 31–47.
Hare-Mustin R. A feminist approach to family therapy. Family Process 1978; 17: 181–194.
Jordan J, Kaplan A, Baker-Miller J, Stiver I, Surrey J. Women's Growth in Connection: Writings from the Stone Center. New York: Guilford, 1991.
Taggart M. The feminist critique in epistemological perspective: Questions of context in family therapy. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy 1985; 11: 113–126.
Greenspan M. Out of bounds. In: Ragsdale KH, ed. Boundary Wars: Intimacy and Distance in Healing Relationships. Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 1996: 129–136.
Ragsdale KH. Introduction. In: Ragsdale KH, ed. Boundary Wars: Intimacy and Distance in Healing Relationships. Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 1996: ix–xxiii.
Coale HW. The Vulnerable Therapist: Practicing Psychotherapy in an Age of Anxiety. New York: The Haworth Press, 1998.
White M. Narratives of Therapist's Lives. Adelaide, Australia: Dulwich Centre Publications, 1997.
Myerhoff B. Life history among the elderly: Performance, visibility, and remembering. In: Ruby J, ed. A Crack in the Mirror: Reflexive Perspectives in Anthropology. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982.
Geertz C. The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books, 1978.
McLean C. Editorial. Dulwich Centre Newsletter 1994; 2 and 3: 2–5.
Tamasese K, Waldegrave C. Cultural and gender accountability in the ‘Just Therapy’ approach. Journal of Feminist Family Therapy 1993; 5(2): 29–45.
White M. Deconstruction and therapy. Dulwich Centre Newsletter 1991; 3: 21–40.
Andersen T. The reflecting team: Dialogue and metadialogue in clinical work. Family Process 1987; 26: 415–428.
Andersen T, ed. The Reflecting Team: Dialogues and Dialogues about the Dialogues. New York: Norton, 1991.
Griffith JL, Griffith ME. The Body Speaks: Therapeutic Dialogues for Mind-Body Problems. New York: Basic Books, 1994.
Epston D. Internalizing discourses versus externalizing discourses. In: Gilligan S, Price R, eds. Therapeutic Conversations. New York: Norton, 1993: 161–177.
White M. Commentary: The histories of the present. In: Gilligan S, Price R, eds. Therapeutic Conversations. New York: Norton, 1993: 121–135.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Combs, G., Freedman, J. Relationships, Not Boundaries. Theor Med Bioeth 23, 203–217 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020847408829
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020847408829