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The purpose of this article is to bring attention to some questionable behaviors that call on us to examine certain ethical principles in some detail. For most therapists, ethics is a philosophical concept of which we are dimly aware, but one that does not affect our everyday analytic practice. Most of us do, in fact, practice ethically because we are essentially ethical people and were taught our art ethically by ethical teachers. Thus, we do the right thing because it is the right thing to do, not because there may be some sanction if we do not. Yet looking at some components of ethical behavior and ethical principles may help us become aware of some of our automatic assumptions and behaviors.
In the pre-Hippocratic era, physicians were a loosely affiliated group who were essentially itinerant. They were skilled in making house calls as they traveled from village to village. As there was significant competition by other practitioners such as folk healers and the like, physicians had to be especially sensitive to public relations and customer satisfaction. A code of behavior (it wasn't quite ethics) was established so that the public could recognize that if they engaged the services of a member of that particular guild, they would be treated properly and fairly, and with dignity and compassion.
I believe that the earliest behavioral codes were conscious executive sets of decisions that were ego driven. We see an example in the Hippocratic oath that is clearly the outgrowth of a guild rather than a