The discussions by Celenza and Itzkowitz underline the therapeutic principle that the splintered internal worlds of dissociative patients can be accessed in multiple ways. In my response to their commentaries, I will discuss how the use of theory can become a simulacrum of the colonial mind-set. I also echo Celenza’s idea (this issue) that the enactment of maternal eroticism is crucial in clinical work with psychopathy and perversion. I add that there is no degree of preparation or style of participation that protects the therapist from encounters with his own alterity.