Posted by pegasus on October 10, 2007, at 10:01:41
In reply to another bad termination, posted by pegasus on October 7, 2007, at 21:49:47
Thanks so much everyone for your thoughts on this. I hear that this is the situation now:
The T got supervision from a number of experienced Ts. They unanimously recommended transfering the client to another (same sex) T. So, in the next session, the T plans to explain to client that they seem to be stuck in a place where they are not doing anything therapeutic or helpful for the client (this has been explained to the client before). Dwelling on these erotic fantasies is only feeding them. If they cannot move the sessions into more therapeutic territory, and stop trying to talk about erotic material that is not therapeutic, T will need to transfer client. The expectation is that the client will then continue to try to bring the conversation back to erotic material, and will consequently be terminated (transferred).
This is psychodynamic therapy, and the supervisors are experienced in that orientation. From what I gather, the concept here is that erotic fantasies centering on the T, especially when presented as attempts to seduce the T rather than as attempts to understand the underlying psychological issues, are different than other types of fantasies. Discussing them in sessions generally feeds them, resulting in less and less therapeutic value to the client. Intuitively I get this. Talking about sex with the object of one's desires is a lot like having sex with them.
Where I get stuck is in why it's ok to transfer a client who is stuck on erotic fantasies, but not a client who is having, say, persistent fantasies of the T as a perfect mother. I've heard of a number of therapeutic conversations where clients and Ts talk about that one. And it seems to be helpful. In an intuitive way I understand how fantasies with T as sex partner are qualitatively different than fantasies with T as mother. And it does seem intuitively that discussing the mother fantasies would be more helpful. But exactly why is that? Is it just that the desire to be mothered is so energetically different than the desire to have sex?
Peg
poster:pegasus
thread:787720
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20071009/msgs/788242.html