Passion and Vulnerability: Clinical Practice and Witnessing in a Wounded Reality: Discussion of Articles by Eldad Iddan and Rita Karuna Cahn

Abstract

The two articles discussed allow a magnifying glass on the inevitable intertwining of the personal and the political in our offices and beyond. The articles highlight the vulnerability and risks incurred by the therapist who passionately attempts to engage or to witness a wounded reality. It is argued that there is an ambiguity inherent in the attempt to provide a haven and a safe place for our patients while recognizing the inability and the costs of sealing off our offices and our psyches from this wounded world. Similarly, there is a paradox in passionately witnessing suffering in a reality of shifting perpetrator-victim positions. There are no simple solutions to these paradoxes, but living within them means accepting that the vulnerability and risks that define our existence in a wounded reality, constantly intrude our offices, and constitute part of our work. Overarching implications are suggested.

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Notes on contributors

Chana Ullman

Chana Ullman, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and training analyst at Tel Aviv Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis. She is faculty and supervisor at the Psychotherapy Program, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University; and at the School of Psychotherapy at Bar Ilan University. She is a member of the IARPP Board and is in private practice in Rehovot, Israel.