A student of mine is writing a very interesting article about restrictions on sex between medical and quasi-medical professionals (from psychotherapists and doctors to massage therapists and opticians) and patients. But he's looking for a good term to fill in the blank:
"One common argument for restricting sex between psychotherapists and their clients is that the clients often have a diminished ability to ___."
The term would mean something like "make wise decisions," but he'd like something shorter, preferably a single word (even if hyphenated). Of course, the claim isn't that all the rest of us are so good at making wise decisions about sex -- only that psychotherapists' clients tend to be even less able to make such decisions than the rest of us. Nor is the claim that the clients have a diminished ability to make wise decisions about sex with their psychotherapists; rather, it's that the emotional or mental problems that send them to the psychotherapist tend to cause a diminished ability to make wise decisions about sex more generally.
Note also that the question at this point isn't whether the argument is accurate, or whether, even if it's accurate, it justifies the regulations. My student is just looking for a clear yet concise term that can be used to fill in that blank (and can be reused many times later in the article, which is why my student is looking for something concise). If you have some tips for this, please post them in the comments. Thanks!
.
diminished wisdom
diminished judgment
diminished self-control
Transference related issues being one of the main reasons for the prohibition in general. A related term might be maintain self-identity.
--PtM
From Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition. 1995.
ratiocinate
VERB: To use the powers of the mind, as in conceiving ideas, drawing inferences, and making judgments: cerebrate, cogitate, deliberate, reflect, speculate, think. Idioms: put on one's thinking cap, use one's head.
I think he's trying to hard. Better to rewrite the sentence than search for a word that may not exist.
Function: noun
Date: 14th century
1: compliance in or approval of what is done or proposed by another : acquiescence "he shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties — United States Constitution"
2: agreement as to action or opinion; specifically : voluntary agreement by a people to organize a civil society and give authority to the government
How about ability to 'distinguish authority'.
I agree with R. Porter, though. He is trying to hard for a multi-tool. Better to use the right tool than to use a multi tool that doesnt do it very well.
Often, when you can't find the right word, it helps to recast the sentence.
As it stands, I might suggest "evaluate risk."
perspectivize
partition, segment, proportion
deconflict (or de-conflict)?
The phrasing is awkward because most of the best descriptions will involve transitive verbs.
perspicate.
Only problem--it might be a neologism I just created.
verb form of perspicuity:
keenness of mental perception and understanding;
Acuteness of perception, discernment, or understanding;
the capacity to assess situations or circumstances shrewdly and to draw sound conclusions
if it's a common argument, then he should just phrase it as it is most commonly given. If he can't do that, then it's not a common argument.
One common complaint is that clients will confuse the intimacy of therapy and the intimacy of sex.
("Sex between clients and patients" should already be the topic by the time you get to this sentence, so that phrase can be cut in order to make a cleaner sentence.)
"consent" is O.K., but I think the more accurate term would be "for discerment". (Porter said it first).
Definitions of discernment:
understanding: the cognitive condition of someone who understands; "he has virtually no understanding of social cause and effect"
taste: delicate discrimination (especially of aesthetic values); "arrogance and lack of taste contributed to his rapid success"; "to ask at that particular time was the ultimate in bad taste"
perception of that which is obscure
sagacity: the mental ability to understand and discriminate between relations
discretion: the trait of judging wisely and objectively;
I think you're confusing perspicuity with perspicacity. The thing that is seen clearly is perspicuous and has perspicuity, while the person who sees it clearly is perspicacious and practices perspicacity. 'Perspicate' looks more like a verb formed from the latter than the former, but should still probably be avoided as ambiguous.
Not that I have any better ideas.
"compartmentalize"
No one is saying that the patients should have their right to sex restricted, nor the same right of the therapists, either. And if the same two people weren't therapist and client it would not be an issue.
The prob is that the client would theoretically be harmed by the carryover of one relationship with the therapist into another. But I also agree with the commenters above who call for a rewrite.
SECOND IDEA:
"forgive"
"resist the possibility of bedding a beautiful, intelligent, and witty redhead."
OK, so I dated her before she officially became a psychiatrist.
There are no victims here, only the lucky.
Google wasn't much help.
Reason.
The sentence, however, is awkward, and should be restructured. Try:
" The client’s inability to ________ is an common justification for prohibiting sex between psychotherapists and their clients."
But the client's problem is not pervasive, but contextual.
[Otherwise, are we to infer that, for ex, all people who seek therapy are generally incapable of choosing their own sexual partners? Or that they have diminished judgment in every choice they make?]
One cannot generalize the problem onto all of the client's other relationships and yet the sentence as written - esp w/the request for a single word, no more, to complete it - does just that. That's why no one word can fix it and why we're all having such a problem finding one.
And the second one is that I'll use it in your interest and not my own, and I won't exploit you. Now, you will say, "Well, this is terribly, terribly fundamental. It's obvious." It's so obvious that it's painfully the thing that's most frequently missed," Said Edmund Pellegrino, MD in a dscussion of the Presidential Commission on Bioethics on Sept 6, 2007 from which I have copied.
Says the "Dog"
I live in a state (as Eugene posted a while ago) that santions sex with your dental hygenist. Anybody ever consider the absurdity of a standards board making judgements about the propriety of people having sex? Some of the research that has been publicized lately about the secret life of our sexual senses should put us on notice that our concious mind is not in control, therapist or no.
The American Psychological Association's code of ethics points out that sex with a client is a matter of exploitation, so "diminished ability to avoid exploitation" is probably more accurate, overall.
If you want a single word, "self-protect" would be accurate, albeit wretchedly written. I'd recommend rewriting the sentence altogether:
"One common argument for restricting sex between psychotherapists and their clients is that these types of relationships are often exploitative. Thus, forbidding such relationships serves to protect vulnerable clients."
According to Wikipedia, ostriches are genus Struthio and belong to the order Struthioniformes. So it looks like "struthioniform" is your best bet.
Hope this helps.
Realistically, there is no one word that fits because the situations being discussed are too different. If the student were only discussing sleeping with, say, a psychiatrist or a physician, you might be able to find a word that applied.
But when you add opticians and massage therapists to the mix (and why not hairdressers and personal trainers, too), you don't have anything like the same dynamic, and so there won't be a one-word-fits all term.
I assume that "wise decisions about sex..." refers exclusively to the general idea of "having sex when one shouldn't" (as opposed to the idea that patients can unwisely not have sex when they should).
Oh. No, wait. That supports the contrary argument.
(Couldn't resist!)
"use reason"
"act rationally"
"understand that pillow talk will be limited to 45-minute intervals while the other person takes notes"
"not talk about Freudian envy in bed"
"be flexible enough to do it on the couch"
"keep-a-secret"?
"not use weapon-of-mass-destruction"?
Function: intransitive verb
Inflected Form(s): ter·gi·ver·sat·ed; ter·gi·ver·sat·ing
Etymology: Latin tergiversatus, past participle of tergiversari to show reluctance, from tergum back + versare to turn, frequentative of vertere to turn — more at worth
Date: 1590
================================
#607. Tergiversation
-- N. change of mind, change of intention, change of purpose; afterthought. tergiversation, recantation; palinode, palinody; renunciation; abjuration,abjurement; defection &c. (relinquishment) 624; going over &c. v.; apostasy; retraction, retractation; withdrawal; disavowal &c. (negation) 536; revocation, revokement; reversal; repentance &c. 950- redintegratio'amoris. coquetry; vacillation &c. 605; backsliding; volte-face. turn coat, turn tippet|; rat, apostate, renegade; convert, pervert; proselyte, deserter; backslider; blackleg, crawfish [U. S.], scab*, mugwump [U. S.], recidivist. time server, time pleaser; timist|, Vicar of Bray, trimmer, ambidexter; weathercock &c. (changeable) 149; Janus.
V. change one's mind, change one's intention, change one's purpose, change one's note; abjure, renounce; withdraw from &c. (relinquish) 624; waver, vacillate; wheel round, turn round, veer round; turn a pirouette; go over from one side to another, pass from one side to another, change from one side to another, skip from one side to another; go to the rightabout; box the compass, shift one's ground, go upon another tack. apostatize, change sides, go over, rat; recant, retract; revoke; rescind &c. (abrogate) 756; recall; forswear, unsay; come over, come round to an opinion; crawfish *[U. S.], crawl* [U. S.]. draw in one's borns, eat one's words; eat the leek, swallow the leek; swerve, flinch, back out of, retrace one's steps, think better of it; come back return to one's first love; turn over a new leaf &c. (repent) 950. trim, shuffle, play fast and loose, blow hot and cold, coquet, be on the fence, straddle, bold with the hare but run with the hounds; nager entre deux eaux; wait to see how the cat jumps, wait to see how the wind blows.
Adj. changeful &c. 149; irresolute &c. 605; ductile, slippery as an eel, trimming, ambidextrous, timeserving;. coquetting &c. v. revocatory, reactionary.
Phr. "a change came o'er the spirit of my dream" [Byron].
or SELECT
or CHOOSE
or FILTER
"One common argument for restricting sex between psychotherapists and their clients is that the psychotherapists often have insufficient ability to ___."