Ernest Lash's Ethical Violation

This book incorporates a myriad of ethical violations, the majority occur when the character assumes that they know best how to avoid them. This is what I found most amusing about this story, those that wrote the book about ethics were the ones that violated them most. Sometimes intentionally, other times after intense justification of their actions. Of the main characters in the book, I figured that Ernest Lash would be the one to cross the line with Carolyn through his new course of treatment; transparency, and disclosure. A clinician revealing too much of oneself in a counseling session, as evidenced by the book, can be very dangerous territory. His failure to disclose was likely to maintain an air of neutrality, he truly used her

The relationship between Marshall and Shelly was also riddled with violations, though not overtly detrimental to the client they were detrimental just the same. Marshall was in no way acting in the best interest of Shelly, his course of treatment had two directives: save the institute and advance his reputation and career. Marshall’s agenda was in violation of the ethical principles of beneficence, nonmaleficence, and fidelity. Helping Shelly become a better gambler is not unethical, that was not however his reason for seeking treatment. Alternatively, it was quite evident that gambling was an area of concern. So, Marshall encouraging gambling was not in the best interest of Shelly, this was done to help himself and was highly unethical; violating ACA codes A.1.a and A.6.b. During their interaction Marshall was not acting as an advocate for Shelly. Rather than removing boundaries or obstacles to his improvement, he encouraged them. Marshall gambled with Shelly in his office and accompanied him outside of the office to gamble, violation of ACA code A.6.b, A.6.e, and A.7.a. This is an assumption; however, I doubt he documented their outing; which is a violation of ACA code A.6.c. Marshall also violated Shelly’s confidentiality when he disclosed to another that he felt Shelly was a sociopath, ACA code

I would not have taken Shelly gambling, nor encouraged it. Instead, I would have attempted to work with Shelly on other facets of his life that were problematic and his destructive desire to gamble. If he chose to refuse treatment, then there would be nothing more I could do. The descriptive term to encapsulate my feeling about the justifications of Marshall is “disappointment.” Marshall is a selfish man who lost sight of the ethical principles that he held in such high regard; each of his actions can be tied to a self-serving foundation. In the case of Macondo, I would not have had lunch, nor accepted the watch or a business deal. I really believe there must be a line, Marshall was the cautionary tale of exactly why. Had he simply said no he would have saved himself a great deal of headache. When Macondo gave too much, reduce the fee by that amount for the next session. I feel this action is Macondo’s way of testing Marshall’s character, when he saw that it was capable to sway him the game began. Had he declined in the beginning and stuck to it, he would not have been taken. Alternatively, Earnest tiptoed very close to the edge, but in the end did no harm to himself or others; he helped. With the possibility that it may hamper the experiment, I feel that I would have been honest