ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the alternatives to rule-based ethics that are more similar than different from one another. All emphasize the importance of social-cultural context in creating meaning, the need to hear nondominant discourses as well as dominant ones, the importance of using power relationally and responsibly, and the interconnectedness of social and individual welfare. The chapter presents two case examples. The first illustrates the usefulness of feminist ethical principles with a client in which mutuality, including appropriate self-disclosure on the part of the therapist, was helpful. The second illustrates the inappropriateness of feminist ethics in case situations in which there is little or no capacity on the part of the client to be mutual and collegial. The chapter addresses communal ethical obligations at both individual practitioner and institutional levels and analyzes the doublespeak in managed care’s use of communal ethics in justifying its practices.
