Ethics and the Discovery of the Unconscious by John H. Riker The unconscious is part of every day language in the United States and much of the world. However, the ethical considerations of this have been largely left unexplored. Riker brings this to the forefront of our thought in his book Ethics and the Discovery of the Unconscious. The importance of this book should not be underestimated. The discovery of the unconscious, in many ways, has change the very nature of how ethics should be understood today. Riker does not approach this topic from the perspective of a therapist, but rather as an ethicist. Unfortunately, this has caused many factual errors in the book. For example, he rather strongly asserts that the ethical consequences of the unconscious have not been given any attention since Freud's mapping of the unconscious. However, this is not true. Many existential thinkers have directly and indirectly addresses this issue. The factual errors do not distract from the significance of the book nor do they invalidate the majority of his assertions. One issue which was not given significant enough attention is the implications of the ethics and the unconscious for people considering therapy. If the unconscious influences our behavior and the exploration of our unconscious helps free us from the potentially tyranical influence of the unconscious, then it could be argued that there is an ethical imperitive for therapy! This is a rather bold statement. Certainly, psychotherapy and exploring the unconscious is not the ansewr to all of today's ethical problems. Furthermore, therapy can also led to less ethical and less responsible behavior. However, with Riker's book, we shouold no longer deny the importance of therapy in creating a better world. The implications of the unconscious go far beyond just the need for more people to be in therapy. There are many other cultural and societal issues which need to be discussed. How does this impact politics? How does this impact the legal system? The latter of these questions receives considerable attention by Riker. While Riker doesn't claim to have the answers, he does point to the importance of continued discussion about these issues. Ethics and the Discovery of the Unconscious hopefully will be the beginning of some important discussions about the role of the unconscious in ethics. February, 2006
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