Author(s): Brent Willock

Psychotherapy

Psychoanalysis has, from its inception, been a discipline concerned with overcoming the ill effects of certain social taboos. Freud's understanding of the underlying cause of the emotional disturbances of his hysterical patients was that they were suffering from the effects of repressing desires, due to taboos against sexual impulses. Patients in psychoanalysis are encouraged to speak about 'whatever comes to mind', without editing, even if they believe their thoughts and feelings to be unacceptable, heinous or scandalous.Given this focus, it might be assumed that psychoanalysis and its practitioners are free of the constraints imposed by restrictive taboos. This book challenges this idea by examining a sampling of the taboos that are rife in the field. It is not intended to offer a complete summary of all of the forbidden ideas, clinical procedures, behaviors and institutional practices in psychoanalysis, but rather to raise consciousness about the fact that even within a field which encourages freedom of expression, many issues remain difficult to fully discuss both in the consulting room and in professional discourse.In some cases, the result is a limitation in the therapeutic results for the patient.
In others, theory development is hampered by the taboo. In one case, that of the taboo against openly discussing a history of sexual contact between certain senior training analysts and their patients, future patients are potentially harmed ...The book ...provides a refreshing, thoughtful, honest look at many of the taboos present in psychoanalysis, even at this moment of greatly improved communication between the various theoretical schools in the field. Reading it provides a sense of freedom for the reader, as speaking of forbidden thoughts always does. We hope the book will inspire others to seriously consider the taboos that hamper their practices, and that further ideas on these issues will come to light.' - Lori Bohm from the Introduction.