Any other psychologist would be horrified to see the “treatment“ his aunt forced onto the MC. This is a child that was running away from home and suicidal. Normally someone who’s in that state would be placed in a 24/7 care facility and receive intensive treatment. There’s no way it’s okay to just turn off his emotions and hope for the best.
But is that really the right treatment though?
I mean, there is something also known as "Hospital Psychosis", were a patient develops mental instability while staying locked up inside a hospital. And the only way to cure it is regularly sedation or send the patient home.
How do i know about "Hospital Psychosis"? Because my father suffered from it just about a month ago, when he was hospitalized for low SpO2 level & viral infection (and later learned that he also had gallstone issue).
He was in hospital for 9 days when the whole thing was supposed to be over by the 5-6 days, because he suddenly developed "Hospital Psychosis" around the 4th day at the hospital, and had to be sedated (around 2 days later) before he was stable for a while (another 2 days on that), and he only got better after coming home.
Aka., being placed in 24/7 care facility to receive intensive treatment, isn't always the solution. Especially if in the end you are just forcing the patient to be put on heavy medications, and also taking them away from home.
In this story, what actually broke MC more was the fact that when his Aunt forcibly took him away (after the incident), his Mother didn't try to stop her and allowed him to be taken.
This created the notion in his mind that both his Mother & Sister had abandoned him, and he only had his Aunt to rely on.
And as i said before, if the Aunt had instead admitted MC to a care facility at that point, he would have 100% believed that even his Aunt had abandoned her. So, even if the treatment at the care facility had fixed his mental issues, he wouldn't have been the same as he is now.
Just to say, Ethic are placed to avoid misuse or exploitation of the methods and system, but they are not something you have to always adhere to.
If you are forced to save a life, and the only thing stopping you from saving someone's life is "Ethic", would you let that person die because you didn't want to break the Ethic?
Also, doctors regularly break the code of ethic, especially in US with how bizarre their medical system is, where hospitals charge thousands of dollars for something which only costs a few dollars when sold at chemist.
Basically, current ethic in medical field, is to be only enforced when you are supposed to treat a patient. But forget about it when it comes to type of treatment, charges and quality of medications used.
There is another fact that you are slightly mistaken.
The Aunt didn't really lock out MC's emotions. She only made a suggestion that, if MC's mind breaks more, he would temporarily abandon those emotions which was causing it and stick to "own-self" identity to help him coup with the situation. He would retain the emotion and even feelings he had with that situation, but won't react based on it.
