The Case of Ms. B., Part I: Intake Interviews

Ms. B., aged twenty, appeared five to ten minutes late. She rang my bell and stood in the hall instead of entering the waiting room (as I'd said she could do). She arrived with her boyfriend (he had a rough, uncouth look; his face was scarred by acne). She was a slender, attractive young woman who wore slacks and a sport coat. She showed a good range of affect, spoke rapidly, and tried to make good contact.

She told of seeking analysis because of a problem with her boyfriend, and also told of having a crush on an older male teacher. In the midst of telling this, she became tearful and anxious; she said she wanted to sit closer and moved from a chair a few feet away to the edge of my couch (next to my chair) and sat opposite me for the remainder of the interview. She was frightened of talking to me, a stranger, and told of her argument with her boyfriend just before seeing me. She wanted to be on time, to have him drop her off while he parked the car. He insisted that she wait until he parked so that he could accompany her. (Later she told of his wanting to accompany her today, that he had accompanied her to her interview with Dr. P., though then it was at her insistence. She would not have him go with her next time.) She returned to telling of her attraction for the male teacher. She thought of having sex with him; there were no specific thoughts, she said. She was tearful. “I would torture myself; I went around believing I had an unresolved Oedipus complex.” She feared she was homosexual. She started remembering being “daddy's girl.” She couldn't remember anything specific. “I favored my father; he wanted me to be his girl.” When father asked her whom she liked best, she'd say she liked both parents equally. She thought she liked her mother best, dating this to age seven. Her father hit her; this was not infrequent. He slapped her face, hit her arm, and this began as far back as she can recall and continued over a period of many vears. Her mother