ABSTRACT
This chapter speaks to the generic field of psychotherapy, to the fundamentals of our profession and is not limited to specific schools or modalities; it concerns itself with the philosophy behind the psychology. In this sense the chapter focuses on ideas about practice rather than the practicalities of practice. The instinctivist streams within psychoanalysis, specifically Freud and Klein, derive the moral sensibility out of internal psychological mechanisms. Gaita's derivation of morality fits well with aspects of the world views of Winnicott and Bowlby. And because this derivation of morality is relational, it is also deeply congenial to the group analytic sensibility. If the first difficulty of altruism is caused by the split between duty and desire, then the second difficulty is caused by the split between the external and internal worlds. Rules and expertise are indeed helpful when trying to navigate the turbulent subjective waters of the clinic, but by themselves they are not nearly enough.
