From Disclosures to the Analyst's Ordinary Life and Ordinary Mortality: A Response to Commentaries of Goldberg, Renik, and Domenici

ABSTRACT

In the field of psychotherapy, transmittable technical knowledge is accumulated through the gradual accumulation of individual case studies as well as through training and supervision. What is lacking is body of literature that speaks frankly about what therapists actually do, in contrast to much of the existing literature which sets forth theories of technique or of mind. In his response to commentaries by Robin Goldberg, Owen Renik and Thomas Domenici to Infecting the Treatment: The Experience of an HIV-Positive Psychoanalyst, the author discusses the subjective experiences of illness, vulnerability, and vicissitudes encountered in training and developing as a clinician.

KEYWORDS:

• AIDS
• countertransference gay
• HIV
• homosexuality
• intersubjectivity
• mutuality
• psychotherapy
• psychoanalysis
• self-disclosure
• subjectivity
• transference