Reflections on Self-Disclosure, Desire, Shame and Emotional Engagement in the Gay Male Psychoanalytic Dyad

Abstract

A treatment case is discussed from a perspective that sees the therapeutic process as informed by a theoretical orientation which grounds itself in a two-person psychology and focuses on the relational life of the therapist and patient. This is in contrast to those theoretical frameworks which are rooted in a one-person psychology and which regard the patient as the fundamental unit of study. Therapeutic perspectives which emanate from a two-person psychology, on the other hand, operate with a heightened sensitivity to the interactional elements in the therapeutic situation. Therapeutic dyads in which both members openly identify as gay or lesbian are a relatively recent phenomena in the history of psychoanalysis. This parallels a cultural shift which has resulted in the “coming out” and “letting in” of lesbian and gay psychoanalysts into mainstream analytic institutes, and the more open expression of experience-near analytic subjectivities which emanate from these positions.

Key Words:

• Relational psychoanalysis
• homosexuality
• social constructivism
• countertransference
• self-disclosure
• homophobia