Falling into Sexuality: Sexual Boundary Violations in Psychotherapy

… Into whatever houses I enter—I will go into them for the benefit of the sick, and will abstain from every voluntary art of mischief and corruption, and further from the seduction of females or males, bond or free. …

In writing about his treatment of Frau Hirschfeld, Freud described her as one of a

class of women with whom this attempt to preserve the erotic transference for the purposes of analytic work without satisfying it will not succeed. These are women of elemental passionateness who tolerate no surrogates. … [In such cases it is not] always easy for the doctor to keep within the limits prescribed by ethics and technique. … Again, when a woman sues for love, to reject and refuse is a distressing part for a man to play; and, in spite of neurosis and resistance, there is an incomparable fascination in a woman of high principles who confesses her passion (Freud, 1915, pp. 166-170)

Haynal and Falzeder (1991) compare present-day psychoanalysts to the founders of analysis with regard to boundary violations:

It is tempting to pass judgment on Ferenczi's [who has been reputed to have had sexual relations with his patients] and Freud's

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the April 2008 meeting of Division 39 of the American Psychological Association, New York.

I am deeply indebted to George Atwood, PhD, for his editing and input regarding this paper.

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… indiscretions and acting out, from a supposedly superior position. As if present-day psychoanalysts with all their training, their personal analysis and supervision, and with all the theoretical and technical equipment that have since been provided, find it any easier…. It happens that they marry their patients, a few finish by sleeping with them (Fischer, 1977; Chertok, 1983) and how much must be going on … that can never be verbalized and worked through, (p. 10)

This article1 attempts to facilitate an open, compassionat