At best we set an intention to be neutral! Important reading for all third party neutrals: mediate/articles/boileauK1.cfm The traditional view is that a mediator is a neutral, third party who helps two or more conflicting parties cooperatively resolve their differences. The implication has always been that the mediator—as professional—makes judgments and decisions by analyzing the case before him in a dispassionate, uninvolved way. Interestingly enough, this belief is analogous to the Cartesian-Newtonian epistemological position that holds that one can be an independent observer of an objective world, in science or in daily life. More practically, this has also been the clinical view in most contemporary psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. (See my Essays on Phenomenology and the Self, Essay One). However, I am skeptical about this position, both epistemologically and clinically. What remains an open question is whether a mediator can actually ever be a “neutral third.” There are derivative questions, as well, including the implications for mediation practice in general, should we discover that the notion of neutrality is a convenient fiction, an ideological myth that covers deeper realities.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 01:12:57 +0000
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