Psychotherapy and responsibility

Abstract

Referring to a novel by Campanile, the author outlines, by analogiy, important ethical questions in the therapeutic relationship. Understanding of transferrence has always been one of the fundamental tools of the psychoanalytic cure; by now we can't consider it as a simple repetition of relationships experienced in first infancy but, following a relational point of view, it is co-constructed in the encounter between therapist and patient. Since we are talking about an interaction, the therapist cannot not affect on the development of the relationship and this poses the question of responsability. In which terms are we responsible as psychotherapists? The idea of responsability implies the concept of freedom: the possibility of steering our actions within the margins of discretion. The relational perspective imposes the obligation of questioning onseself on our participation to what happens in the analytic situation; that is, on the possible outcomes of our actions.  Being co-authors of the relationship puts the therapist in the condition to propose alternative options to the ones hypothesized and offered by the patient himself, often in a highly constrictive way. The task of the therapist then is the one of exploring, identifying and developing alternatives with the patient, different from the ones he tends to configure on the basis of his personal history.