Ethical Case Discussion

by | Feb 23, 2022 | ethics

Toula is a college counselor who is well known on campus for her skill and compassion in helping students cope with relationship problems. Currently, Andrew is one of her clients. He came to counseling because he is distraught that his girlfriend, Collette, ended their relationship. Andrew is making slow progress, but still hopes that the will be able to rekindle the relationship with Collette at some point. Louisa is another of Toula’s clients. One day Louisa enters counseling feeling happier than she has in months. She reports that she has met a new lover, Collette, with whom she is very happy. After hearing Louisa describe Collette, she is fairly certain that it is the same woman with whom Andrew was involved. Toula decides to continue counseling both Andrew and Louisa, determined to maintain the confidentiality of each person’s disclosures.
Answer 1(Peer) paragraph
Traci Williams
This situation if nothing else, it is a gross conflict of interest. When Toula discovered Collette had moved on with Louisa, she should have recommended Louisa to someone else. Louisa is in a better place than Andrew, so Toula could recommend she see someone else for the remainder of her sessions since she seems to be making progress. More than 1,300 psychologists identified dual relationships as the second most frequently reported ethical dilemma with harmful therapeutic effects that include erosion of the therapeutic relationship, conflict of interest, and limiting the benefits of therapy after termination to which the avoidance of dual relationships by counselors appears to be a logical course of action (Nigro, 2004, p. 53-54). Part of the complexity of dual-relationship issues is that the practitioner does not always consider them harmful (Nigro, 2004, p.54). This is the issue Toula is having. She does not seem the harm in counseling Louisa and Andrew, which, as I stated before, is a severe conflict. Accidentally disclosing to either of them about the other could do unnecessary harm and/or cause irreversible damage. As a counselor, “first do no harm” is a principal that Toula has forgotten.

Sample solution

Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell. 

In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.


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God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.

Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.

To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.

 

References

Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.

Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.

Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.

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