Spring Conference
Sexual and Loving Feelings in Therapy: Clinical and Ethical Dimensions

Presenter: Glen Gabbard, MD

Sexualized and loving feelings in psychotherapy have been referred to as "both goldmine and minefield.” On the one hand, the feelings of love and sexual desire that emerge in psychotherapy provide a window into the patient's unconscious internal object relations, desires, defenses against desires, and anxieties about intimacy that occur in relationships outside the therapeutic setting. By focusing on the emergence of these feelings and wishes in the therapist-patient relationship, where there is a boundaried sense of safety, the patient and therapist can understand more fully the problems that have occurred in the patient's past and in the patient's current relationships. These principles will be illustrated using vignettes on DVD. Differences in gender constellations of the therapist-patient dyad will be emphasized. On the other hand, the therapist may mishandle the loving and sexualized feelings as they appear in the psychotherapy and embark on a tragic course of action with the patient that harms the patient's capacity to use psychotherapy, exploits the patient's vulnerability, and destroys the therapist's professional career. We will discuss common countertransference dilemmas for the psychotherapist and their optimal management. Sexual boundary violations will be discussed based on the presenter's experience of treating, evaluating, and consulting on over 200 cases of sexual boundary violations.

Glen O. Gabbard, M.D. is Professor of Psychiatry and Brown Foundation Chair of Psychoanalysis at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He is also a training and supervising analyst at the Houston-Galveston Psychoanalytic Institute. From 2001-2007 he was Joint Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis. Dr. Gabbard is the author or editor of 25 books, including Love and Hate in the Analytic Setting, Boundaries and Boundary Violations in Psychoanalysis, Long-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: a Basic Text: Second Edition, Psychiatry and the Cinema, and The Psychology of the Sopranos. He has also published over 300 book chapters and scientific papers. He is highly regarded and has received many awards for his work in the field.