A Guide to Psychology and its Practice

Questions
and Answers

 

24 years ago. . . . I sought a psychologist for help. . . . When I began to feel more “special,” I developed an awful crushing erotic transference for the therapist, who at nearly 60 was exactly the age of my mother. I am sure he knew it, he once remarked that he was suffering from “transference in the opposite,” which terrified me so I just pretended he hadn’t said that. He did come by my new business to see me a few times, we went out for coffee from there a few times, but nothing more sexual than hugs occurred. . . . Finally we terminated my therapy, and although I did not see him again, and he’s died quite some time ago, hardly a day has passed that I don’t think of him. I’m weary of this obsession of him. . . . I won’t ask, “When will this go away?” ... I will ask, “What can I do to be rid of this?”

 
The sad truth of the matter is found in your words “which terrified me so I just pretended he hadn’t said that.” You pretended not to see the truth at the very point when you knew that he had botched the treatment. And now, 24 years later, you still suffer from the fact that instead of interpreting and dissolving the transference this so-called “therapist” acted it out.

This all proves a point that I make throughout this website, and yet it’s a point that many persons in contemporary society pretend not to notice: that eroticism is the cause of a multitude of mental health problems, and that it cures none of them.

So what can you do? Well, as I also say throughout this website, real psychotherapy does not “get rid of” anything. The work of real psychotherapy is to interpret and dissolve the symptoms. Therefore, your last hope is to face up to the fact of a botched treatment. Recognize how this man essentially crippled you emotionally and then feel the pain of it all—the frustration, the indignity, the ugliness, the loss. And then, when you have felt it all and brought your secret unconscious anger to the surface, you can take the last step: forgive him and take personal responsibility for making the rest of your life as meaningful as possible. But you can’t forgive him or make the rest of your life as meaningful as possible if you pretend that he didn’t make a grave blunder. Why? Well, as long as you continue to pretend “he hadn’t said that” the meaning of your life will be nothing more than the obsession of keeping a pretense alive.

 


 Back to the list of questions

 


No advertising—no sponsor—just the simple truth . . .

Huh? Freewill website?
What’s this about?


  

THIS WEBSITE PROVIDES a vast amount of freewill information about the practice of Clinical Psychology. On the Introduction page, you can discover the website’s purpose and philosophy.

And, if my work has been informative and helpful, please send a freewill donation, even if it’s only a few dollars, to help offset my costs in making this website available to everyone without advertising.

“Ingratitude is like indigestion in the soul.” (Anonymous)


Raymond Lloyd Richmond, Ph.D.
San Francisco
 
Credentials
 
Contact Me


 

his is a FREEWILL WEBSITE with NO ADVERTISING. If you find this page to be informative and helpful, please send a freewill donation, even if it’s only a few dollars, to help offset my costs in making this website available, without charge or advertising, to you and to all.

 


 

A Guide to Psychology and its Practice

www.GuideToPsychology.com

 

Copyright © 1997-2009 Raymond Lloyd Richmond, Ph.D. All rights reserved.
San Francisco

 

All material on this website is copyrighted. You may copy or print selections for your private, personal use only. Any other reproduction or distribution without my permission is forbidden.

 

 
Donate

No advertising and no sponsor—just the simple truth.