Termination Was Not the End.
We describe the treatment, five decades ago, of a 28-year-old gay man, who, at the end of psychotherapy, had become became able for the first time to experience an intimate sexually satisfying relationship with a woman. Both he and the therapist were pleased with the outcome. The therapist imagined that heterosexuality would be stable and associated with a sense of contentment. Three years following termination the therapist was shocked to learn that her ex-patient had been murdered, possibly by a man he met in a gay bar. This article discusses the therapist's feelings about changes in psychoanalytic models of homosexuality and psychotherapeutic practices from the time she was a resident until the present.
Private practice, Englewood, NJ; Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School.
Edith T
ET
Shapiro
Retired. Formerly Associate Chairman, Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Medical Center, New York City; Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York City.
Henry
H
Pinsker
D000328:Adult; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011613:Psychotherapy; D019529:Sexuality
bisexuality; casual remarks; objectives of therapy; outcome evaluation; supportive-expressive psychotherapy