Trying to Touch “A Touchy Case”: Discussion of a Clinical Case by Jack Drescher

摘要

Looking for a different perspective that might deepen this otherwise good psychoanalytic process, the author focuses on the remarkable family history of multiple losses that seem not to have been mourned by anyone, including the patient. Like his family, he formed a defensive armor to deaden his feelings and to avoid grief and fear of further loss. It is suggested that the difficult task for the analyst is fostering, and then analyzing, the transference-countertransference repetition of the vulnerable little boy and the emotionally unavailable, oedipal father.