On the Reluctance to Sanction Self-Disclosure: Commentary on Kenneth A. Frank's Paper

Dr. Frank's paper portrays a variety of ideas concerning self-disclosure. Such a variety, in fact, that I found myself forgetting exactly what this paper was about. Frank argues for a two-person perspective, for greater mutuality, for admitting the impact of conscious and unconscious communications, for combining intrapsychic and interpersonal exploration, and for the value of deliberate (as opposed to inadvertent) disclosure. At the same time, he warns against the pitfalls of deliberate disclosure. When all is said and done, he appears to favor therapist self-disclosure as part of a technical approach within a two-person theoretical stance.

I think the strongest point of this paper comes when Frank says that we remain reluctant to alter psychoanalytic technique to accommodate our new two-person theories, preferring the safety of trying to fit one-person pegs into two-person holes.

I agree with him that finding the appropriate role for self-disclosure is the bedrock of any new technical approach. Once we commit ourselves to a more mutual, two-person approach (whether we call it interpersonal, relational, intersubjective, or something else), we either participate more fully in the psychoanalytic encounter or we fail to meet the requirements of our own re-definition of the analytic situation. Frank recommends the selective use of countertransference (including making inadvertent disclosures more manifest and therefore within the conscious control of the analyst), but laments the lack of support for this in the literature. I read this with some dismay given that my own