Psychotherapy and Social Responsibility: The Challenging Case of Homicide

Abstract

In this article we consider the social basis of homicide and the suffering experienced by secondary victims (the family, friends and close associates of the primary victim) and tertiary victims (the communities and societies of primary and secondary victims). We propose that alongside the legitimate and enacted professional role in the sphere of personal suffering, psychotherapists have an ethical obligation to tackle the social roots of such suffering. Specifically, we challenge psychotherapists and their organisations to commence or increase substantially individual and collective engagement aimed at reducing fatal violence in global society by addressing those causative factors which lie beyond individual bio-psychopathology. Such substantive “moral action” can contribute significantly to the present underdeveloped socially responsible basis of psychotherapy.