Forhandlinger om erotikk og autoritet i det terapeutiske rom

Abstract

How to understand the consequences when psychotherapists are involving their clients in sexual behavior. The concepts of transference and countertransference cannot count for the fact that most involved therapists are men, and most involved clients are women. Better modes of understanding are developed by comparing the frame for interpretations of acts in the relationship between therapist and client with the frame for interpretations of acts in heterosexual relationships. By oscillating between the
two frames of interpretation the male therapist is both concealing and increasing his power, and correspondingly the possibilities for development are limited in the female client. This is a serious form of maltreatment not just because sex is given as a substitute
for treatment and cure, but also because she is falsely diagnosed as psychologically vulnerable and unreliable. The abuse is the betrayal of her subjectivity created through his efforts to protect himself from detection and professional degradation.