A Ruthless Examination of an Empathic Clinical Presentation: A Discussion of Joye Weisel-Barth's Clinical Case

My task is to examine the role of the relationship in the therapeutic process, and Dr. Joye Weisel-Barth has provided us with some moving clinical material that is not only interesting and engaging, but that also lends itself quite well to this purpose. In order to approach and open for discussion some difficult, controversial, and, perhaps, some unresolvable theoretical and technical questions about clinical psychoanalysis, I will utilize this material ruthlessly. I do not know Dr. Weisel-Barth (as I write this chapter, we have not yet met), but my sense is that the clinical work is going well, in its own troubled way, and I will draw on the data presented to show precisely why I am encouraged about this analytic process. To express my rationale in Winnicottian terms, it may be because I do have this good feeling about the work that I trust myself to “use” the clinical report in this “ruthless” manner, rather then simply to “relate” to it in a kinder, but more superficial, way (Winnicott, 1971). In beginning my discussion by recognizing and acknowledging the excellent quality of aspects of the treatment and of the presentation and by following