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What, if anything, do dynamically oriented therapists tell patients about their personal lives? What rationale do they have for doing so? How does self-revelation affect the evolving treatment relationship? Are there different guidelines for group than for individual therapists? In this thought-provoking and courageous paper, Engels (2001) argues persuasively that telling her psychotherapy group about her life-threatening struggle with breast cancer was beneficial; both for them and for her. Given the circumstances, I agree with most but not all of what she has to say.
When Jerrold Brandell asked me to comment on this paper he had no way of knowing that I had also spent most of 1999 dealing with life and death issues. In July of 1999, my younger son, Gil, age thirty-four, was diagnosed with liver cancer and given five months to live. He died seven months after the initial diagnosis. Over the course of his illness our extended family lived on an emotional rollercoaster. Hopeful moments were followed by weeks and eventually, months of despair, anger, and grief. While the tragedy was unfolding, I had to decide what I would tell my individual psychotherapy patients. Unlike Engels, I had no physical symptoms so, at least theoretically, I could have remained silent. There was no way to predict whether Gil's chemotherapy would lead to a significant period