Letter to the Editors

Dear Editors,

I would like to express my appreciation for the well-written article by new author Marc A. Sholes, “Letting It Hang Out a Little: A Self-Psychological Perspective on Self-Disclosure.” I really enjoyed reading it and, in fact, could hardly put it down.

I admired Shole's courage in trusting himself despite many supervising voices to the contrary. As experienced and well-trained people, I think that is when we really come into our own as analysts. It is certainly professionally responsible to seek the solace and opinions of supervisors when we find ourselves confronted with encounters that seem to call forth in us responses that don't feel “analytically syntonic” or acceptable to our supervising superego. But in daring to trust our well-honed instincts in listening deeply for what is truly being asked by our patient and in our willingness to respond, I think we allow the relationship to blossom in the aliveness of a playful (in the Winnicotian sense) analytic relationship.

I found myself resonating with Shole's way of “being together” with this patient. I believe for many, if not most, the real work advances when we participate in a way (self-respectfully, of course) that provides the patient with the experience of “knowing us” that they intuitively sense they need. The felt experience in the consulting room with its attendant pushes and pulls cannot always be articulated to ourselves, let alone another (supervisor), because, despite our best efforts, the richness and complexity of the interaction is happening on so many levels within our respective subjectivities and the analytic third.

As they say, “the proof is in the pudding” and Sholes was able to see his patient thrive from the relationship in which he was lovingly able to engage.

Judith Becker Greenwald, L.C.S.W.

Supervisor, Training Analyst, Adjunct Faculty, N.I.P. T.I.

80 East 11th Street, Suite 338

New York, NY 10003

(212)979-2505