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The reluctance to self-disclose: reflexive or reasoned?
1San Diego Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, San Diego, CA, USA.
Abstract:
Despite a growing body of clinical literature advocating the thoughtful and judicious use of self-disclosure in psychoanalysis, there remains a reflexive reluctance to intervene in this way by many analysts of various theoretical persuasions. Why is this the case? Four motives for this reflexive reluctance to self-disclose are discussed: (1) theoretical reasons; (2) psychoanalytic authoritarianism; (3) fears of influencing the patient through suggestion; and (4) the analyst's personality characteristics. Examining the reasons for this state of affairs should help to reduce the rigidity or orthodoxy with which clinical psychoanalysis is practiced.
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