You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
My interest in this subject arose when I heard from a small number of women—not all patients of mine—that they had had sexual relations with their psychotherapists. I noted down some facts about the cases and, over a period of time, quite by accident acquired more cases; a total of nine in about 20 years of practice. I have not included in this list the gossip about the therapist whom “everybody knows sleeps with his patients,” but have confined myself to cases based on first-hand information from one of the parties involved.
The topic is such an obvious source of gossip, cartoons, and jokes that it is surprising that more has not been written about it. Parenthetically, I should note here that I have had trouble getting this paper accepted by larger organizations where I had less, but still not inconsiderable, influence. I was told it was too controversial. What a word for a profession that talked about infantile sexuality and incest in Victorian times. Although “controversial” was the word used, it probably was not meant in its usual sense of “disagreement.” A friend offered “too hot to handle” as a more likely meaning in this instance. In any case, the object of this paper is to provoke discussion and clarification of the issues involved in a matter that has too long been kept out of the literature.
The rationalizations that therapists offer for sleeping with patients tend to be along the line of it being in the best interests of the patient. Since therapists are human, however, there is little need to speak about the ubiquitousness of temptation nor the remarkable capacity of the human animal to make the unlikely seem plausible.