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Ezra at 17 returns to analysis because of troubles galore. He has called 911 in a panic, telling the confused operator that his name is Paul Lorenz. When she asks for his address, he gives Bergasse 17 and then states that he is the Rat Man. It helps him when she counsels that he would be better served by calling his psychiatrist. He has postponed his admission to university because it has become impossible for him to read and, if this were not enough, he is deeply troubled about his sexual life. He tells me that he is only turned on by sado-masochistic fantasy and that it has now crossed over into action. He chokes his girlfriends and whips them with his belt. “The girls seem to like it. I have to do it and you and I know what this is about,” he tells me. “And that is not all. I have started to use my father's paddle on my ass. For the longest time, I just paddled my own hand with it.”
We do both know quite a bit about what this is about. What a triumph. I think that Ezra has returned. Has his earlier psychosis returned, or has our quite gruelling but seemingly successful analytic work enlarged his observing ego to the point where we can examine his concerns in a helpful fashion? I am very happy to see Ezra again. He seems to feel the same way, saying, “It's good to be back and I also think that it was a good thing that we interrupted for several years.” Ezra speaks easily, with many references