It won't fly

• ?Having a relationship with your patient who happens to be a therapist him/herself!!??? by A. Sassani, 10/20/98
  
  

Nah, it just won't fly. First, the ethical, clinical, and fiduciary prohibitions against sex with a psychotherapy patient do not rest solely on transference and countertransference issues (or even in unconscious issues at all). Second, a psychiatrist or psychotherapist can (and clinically must) be just as much a patient as anyone else. Third, psychopathology that lends itself to vulnerability, exploitation, or poor judgement can be found in many therapist-patients just as in other patients. Fourth (just in case someone wants to talk about the role of the unconscious), lest some of our newer colleagues forget, transference and countertransference are unconscious phenomena. They are not a matter of knowledge or education at all. While one might say that a psychiatrist or therapist knows their signs better than a layman, our own unconscious is, after all, unconscious! Incidentally, if anyone wants to start an argument about the philosophical topic of whether or not the unconscious exists, please use another forum. It's not our realm. Thanks.

• Thank you. by A. Sassani, 10/27/98