The Ethics of Interpersonal Relationships

'Our inspiration for writing this book springs from a deep feeling for people and a grave concern that without a proper understanding of the reasons for their inhumanity in relation to one another and the development of a compassionate world view, it is likely that human beings may eventually destroy themselves and life on the planet. This work is an attempt to explain the source of destructive behaviour and how it manifests itself in personal relationships between men, women, couples, and families, and in the social arena. We present a position that offers a hope of altering the destiny of humankind's unethical behavior through better psychological understanding and education. Understanding the source of a person's aggressiveness in defending the fantasy bond and learning to cope with the voice process have strong implications for child-rearing and better mental health practices. Identifying destructive behaviours and faulty programming in family life and society, developing insight into the relationship between defences and aggressive responses, and offering a method to counteract destructive trends constitute a challenge to what many people consider to be humankinds basically unethical nature.' - From the Authors' Introduction