Righting a Wrong: A Discussion of “The Poetics of Boundary Violation: Anne Sexton and Her Psychiatrist”

Abstract

This commentary addresses several issues raised in Charles Levin and Dawn Skorczewski’s probing and insightful paper (this issue) on the tragic story of Anne Sexton’s sexual relations with her analyst. Highlighted are (1) the nature of the betrayal in sexual boundary violations, that being the lie; (2) the false dichotomy of real and unreal analytic love; and (3) the ways in which Sexton attempted to be heard, even through unconscious emanations, as in her poetry. Speculative inquiry is offered about Duhl and others involved in her tragic story. Finally, and in accord with Levin and Skorczewski’s rendering, I aim to celebrate Sexton and her poetry, returning her voice to her in both conscious and unconscious expressions. Atonement and repair are offered in truth-telling – a righting of her legacy that hopefully will be helpful to others as well.

This article refers to:

The Poetics of Boundary Violation: Anne Sexton and Her Psychiatrist

View responses to this article:

Bringing It All Back Home: Reply to Celenza

Notes

¹ I use this terminology, means/end reversal, as definitional of perversion – the use of constructive means for destructive ends. (See Celenza, 2014, in press) for a more elaborated discussion of perversion).

² Plural, both Duhl and Orne are implicated here.

³ Though I had never met Duhl and thereby never formally evaluated him, the evidence gathered and reported by Levin and Skorczewski construct a profile about which we may comment and speculate. The extent to which these conjectures were actually true of Duhl, we will never know.

⁴ This characteristic is often found in cases of sexual boundary violations, where the treatment is experienced as existing in an insulated bubble, other-worldly, and comprised of factors that are so rare, no one would grasp or appreciate them.

⁵ In the story Atonement (McEwan, 2003), the protagonist writes a novel about her sister who had died tragically during the war. In this story, she invents an ending for her sister’s painful life that she knows her sister would have loved to live out. It is a gift to her sister and also an attempt at reparation.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Andrea Celenza

Andrea Celenza, Ph.D., is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Assistant Clinical Professor at Harvard Medical School. She has authored numerous papers and two books: Sexual Boundary Violations: Therapeutic, Supervisory and Academic Contexts, and Erotic Revelations: Clinical Applications and Perverse Scenarios. She is in private practice in Lexington, Massachusetts.