1. Reflections on infecting the treatment
- Author
-
Domenici, Thomas
- Subjects
Infecting the Treatment: The Experience of an HIV-Positive Analyst (Book) -- Book reviews ,Books -- Book reviews ,Psychology and mental health ,Women's issues/gender studies - Abstract
This paper discusses Gilbert Cole's book, Infecting the Treatment: Being an HIV-Positive Analyst. The author provides some personal reflections on the outbreak of AIDS and the impact it had upon the his work as a psychotherapist. The paper addresses the importance of the cognitive schemata Cole provides to psychotherapists working with seropositive patients. This paper then addresses a powerful technique, a therapist's self disclosure to a patient, upon which Cole's work focuses. Using the example of psychoanalytic strictures regarding self-disclosure, the author argues that self-disclosure is more likely to be adhered to in theory than it is in practice. The author agrees with Cole that non-disclosure is often a technique used by analysts to hide, rather than provide a therapeutic field of action. The specific case of therapists hiding their antihomosexuality when working with lesbians and gay men is used to illustrate the author's perspective. A specific case presented by Cole in his book is then used to both compare and contrast Cole and this paper's author's use of self-disclosure. The paper commends Cole's study for opening a debate on how to use countertransference and self disclosure as tools which widen and enrich the therapeutic relationship. KEYWORDS. AIDS, antihomosexuality, countertransference, HIV, psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, self-disclosure, transference
- Published
- 2006