Posted by alexis6 on September 11, 2004, at 2:19:15
In reply to I put my therapist in the hot seat :), posted by DaisyM on September 11, 2004, at 1:48:49
Hi Daisy,
That sounds like it was fun! In psychoanalytic therapies it does seem to be frustrating that motives are attributed to nearly everything-sometimes it can be easy for analysts to forget that a mistake can just be a mistake, maybe it was benificial for him as well.
I did play a little game with a former therapist to try to get a reaction from him, although in retrospect it seems a bit pointless and it did in fact completely backfire.
I had inadvertantly discovered that my T was (at least at one point) a commited Christian, and I was curious if he would be judgmental or reactive if I told him of an (mostly imaginary) fear of religion I had. And I wanted to make him angry, for whatever reason. So in the session after I found this out, I went on and on about how much I hated religion and spirituality, and couldn't possibly ever relate to a religious person...etc, etc. He didn't even blink.
In a later session I had the opportunity, due to a family member deciding to join a church, to bring it up again. I told him about it, and then started laughing. He asked me what was so funny, and I said that I felt awkward telling him this, but I knew he was a Christian. He stared at me blankly and asked why I thought that. I told him I had seen him advertise on a Christian website when I was looking for his webpage, and just assumed he was-and also told him that he just "seemed like a Christian" to me. (This was not actually the way I found out). He was really shocked, and I think offended too.
So it turns out that he had completely left the faith, no longer considered himself a Christian (and actually had a lot of antagonism towards the church), and when I had been trying to make him angry at me by complaining about religion, he was actually identifying with me. So that didn't work out so well :-).
Best, Alexis
poster:alexis6
thread:389510
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040905/msgs/389516.html