Private Means by Cree LeFavour

Author:Cree LeFavour [LeFavour, Cree]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780802148902
Publisher: Grove Atlantic
Published: 2020-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

Monday, July 23

Therapy, as you may recall, Peter, was once famously described as an unnatural deconstruction of desire, Dr. March began.

As Peter’s supervising analyst during his years at Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, Dr. March’s nearly bald head contained more than a brilliant mind; it contained Peter’s strengths and weaknesses as an analyst. He communicated with a firm restraint that seemed at odds with his slight stoop, wire-rimmed glasses, and fringe of close-cropped white hair. Peter had arrived in his office after his last session. A fond reunion was followed by a twenty-minute explanation of where his treatment of Lisbeth stood, her condition, and most importantly his own countertransference. Coming to the end of his story, Peter realized how odd it was to be sitting in the patient’s chair. It had been so long, and it felt good even if his visit wasn’t really a session. It was a conversation between colleagues. In his present crisis, Peter craved his mentor’s advice and yearned for his approval as never before.

As you well know, Dr. March continued, this deconstruction of desire isn’t the deconstruction of your desire—it’s the patient’s desire. You’re not a good, neutral object when you’re infatuated with your patient. If you aren’t doing active damage, you’re at the very least her accomplice in playing out a predetermined relational erotic paradigm. You’re supporting and in fact reinforcing her neurosis by reacting to her in the way you do. That’s not therapy—that’s malpractice.

I’ve strictly limited my behavior to fantasy, but the intensity is so much greater than anything I’ve experienced in reaction to a patient before. It’s as if I woke up on the lip of a cornice just as an avalanche began, and all I can do is ski like hell while knowing that in the end I’ll be buried.

That’s a fine thought, and the cornice offers a surprisingly appropriate metaphor. A cornice is the condition of snow poised at the moment of transition between order and disorder. Once the snow begins to move down the mountain it becomes an enclosed system with its own self-governing laws. The metaphor suggests you feel you’ve been placed in a position, not placed yourself there, on the brink of chaos. A position, I might add, that is already out of your control. I’d suggest this is somewhat wishful thinking on your part.

The metaphor does suggest a sense of imminent catastrophe, Peter admitted. He’d have preferred his friend to be less aggressive, but this was, after all, what he’d come for. A straightening out.

Perhaps you relish the disastrous consequences you may bring on yourself as a result of your failure to manage your sexual impulses.

I have a repressed wish to destroy my practice and my marriage? You’re saying this patient is simply the means to an end. She could be anyone?

Possibly. But she’s not anyone. She’s your patient and you have an ethical and legal duty to her. That you have private means for satisfying yourself is beside the point. You’re mistaken

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.