Things That Suck About Being a Lawyer: 1. Challenges of Moral Development

You may remember Kohlberg’s Moral Development theory from Psychology 101. Simply stated, our evaluation of the relative good or bad of a situation adjusts over time. Our evaluative process grows as we grow. Children make decisions based on external rules which eventually give way to internalized value structures based on the common good. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohlberg; http://faculty.plts.edu/gpence/html/kohlberg.htm)

Consider that in light of your work. You push yourself to see all angles of the situation. You push yourself to consider all aspects that might be addressed. Constantly you find yourself representing people whose moral processing and reasoning is somewhere far from yours. Their judgment is often poor. Their reasoning is faulty.

The gap between your clients’ processing and judgment and your own can create a moral disconnect within you. Of course there is a higher good in the process (at least conceptually). Of course everyone deserves good representation. As your own moral processing and development proceeds the gap between you and your clients enlarges. The internal discomfort and disconnect between what you believe in and what you have to do grows. No wonder the mental strain gets to lawyers.