ABSTRACT
Recently one of my patients, a white, professional woman in her late twenties from a relatively wealthy and socially prominent family, arrived at her session in an agitated state. She told me the following story. The previous week she had dinner with a man from out of town whom she met on a business trip. After dinner (their first date), as they were walking away from the restaurant, he told her he had no place to stay in Washington and that it was too late to return home. She named several hotels in the immediate neighbourhood, but he pressured her to let him stay at her house. She demurred, saying it was not set up for overnight guests, and there was nowhere for him to sleep. He said he did not mind sleeping on the floor. They discussed this for about 10 minutes, and finally she agreed to let him stay with her. At her house they talked and watched TV for a while (both sitting on the bed). Early in the morning she was exhausted and said she wanted to go to sleep. She changed into a sweatshirt and pants and went under the covers to sleep. A short time later she awoke to find the man under the covers with her, his hand on her shoulder, sighing loudly. She took his hand away, but he returned it to her body, moving it down her thigh and continuing to sigh. Again she flung the hand off, but he returned it. Finally she yelled at him, ‘what are you doing?’, took a blanket, and went to sleep on the floor. He left early the next morning and later called her (although she did not return the call).
