t wrote: "If someone values "the relationship" "Evidence showing that the relationship MAY be harming the woman" is evidence that is already clearly and explictly present in just what has been desribed about this case so far. That's because the lady is unhappy. That is harming her life. Her marital relationship MAY be harming her life, just as you suggest it MAY be. However, as you also suggest by using the word "may," a hypothetical relation between her unhappiness and the nature of her marital relationship also may NOT exist or, if it does exist, may not be causal. So clearly, we now have the evidence of which you speak--that the relationship MAY be harming her. And the same evidence can be used to assert that the marital relationship MAY be harming her health. Your main concern seems to be that her marital relationship may be harming her health. Well, is there now any evidence that the relationship IS harming her health? None that this psychologist knows about, for I am not an OBGYN nor a medical expert of any stripe competent to assert the existence of such a causal relationship. In the psychological literature I have read thousands of opinions about such possible causal relations between the quality of one's relationships and physical harm to one's health; but I know of nothing that qualifies as scientific evidence on that issue. And I certainly concur with you that one's values are indeed important and should be made as explicit as possible. But values do not transform opinions into facts. I know a whale of a lot of psychological research literature. And I know of no hard evidence that the quality of relationship CAUSES good or bad physical health. Opinions about such matters abound among both laypersons and professioanls. Any or all such opinions may indeed be true or, that is, they may also be facts. But we don't know that such opinions are facts. There is modestly good evidence that there is a relation between good health and good relationships, but whether this relationship is causal--or what else may be entailed to determine the direction of causality, if it is causal--is still a matter of much ignorance. And if such evidence DID exist (that good relationships cause good health and that bad relationships cause bad health), I would feel it my responsibilty to work in tandem with a patient's OBGYN and/or internist if I felt it was my professional responsiblity to keep watch over a patient's physical health as well the patient's relationship difficulties. I have found, to my dismay, that when I act as if I know THAT WHICH I don't really know, it can happen that I diminish my ability to recognize when I know THAT I don't know.
over the "individual health of the woman," they are less likely to consider evidence showing that
the relationship may be harming the woman."
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