Clinical Commentary VIII

[This section is a regular feature. A short piece of clinical material from an actual session is presented with a brief introduction about the case. The material has been sent ‘blind’ to three people who represent different psychotherapeutic schools of thought. They have been asked to comment on the material and the approach of the therapist in the session, The intention is to put these commentaries on the same material side by side for comparison of the different approaches and to facilitate the understanding of alternative terminologies and modes of practice- Ed.]

The History

The patient, Marie, a woman in her mid-thirties, has two brothers both in their forties. Neither she nor her brothers have married. Marie's mother often told her never to marry nor to have children as children prevent a woman from fulfilling herself. When in her twenties Marie lost through miscarriage a baby she very much wanted; though today she still cannot believe that she can combine a career with having babies.

Marie learned as n little girl that it was ‘dangerous to be depressed’, for whenever she was her mother or brothers would say, ‘What's wrong with you! Cheer up!’ She said she knew little about her father who was often abroad on business for long periods; and in her teens he ‘gave up on her’, when she came to accept what her in other had told her for as long as she could remember - that he was at fault in everything -though feeling also that her mother betrayed him and took away his dignity. (Her father died a year before she entered therapy.) On the other hand Marie speaks of a father who was not fond this sons but who was so close to her that they were both embarrassed. When a teenager, Marie was told by her mother that she was too close to her friends.

If Marie was closest to her father, her mother was closest to Marie's brothers: ‘She had no time to worry about me’. Conversely, she thinks that her mother was too sympathetic to her, gave her all her own way, neve