ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a discussion of the intimate relationship between love and art, leading to the conclusion that intensive personality changing psychotherapy is an art form. Using the book’s theory of personality, a relational two-person psychotherapy is described. Two unusual elements are described. First, ideally the therapist’s person is an important part of the therapy relationship and second, the therapist does not respond to the client in ways that feed the affect hunger of the therapist’s person. There is a similarity in the ways artistic therapists and artistic actors use their feelings. Instead of being limited to using their feelings automatically, they use them at the service of the work in which they are engaged. Therapists, who learn this skill therapeutically, use their feelings to respond to the subtext of what a client is saying in session. Actors use their feelings to enrich the subtext of the lines the character they are playing is saying. In both professions, the quality of their work is emotionally enriched. This skill is difficult for both professions, requiring years of repetitive practice. The chapter, and the book, ends by describing the need for more emotional training for therapists.
