ABSTRACT
The psychological evaluation included in the expert opinion emphasized Reuben's rigid defense system and massive use of intellectualization, rationalization, and dissociation for dealing with feelings of abandonment and rejection in interpersonal relationships, and its collapse into vengeful, perverse destructiveness. This chapter argues that Reuben's returning to treatment at a time of distress, rather than following his familiar, impulsive, lonely, destructive pattern of behavior, was an enormous change, a venture of trust in the therapeutic relationship. Although Reuben had apparently grown up in harsh emotional circumstances, when he spoke about his life at the start of treatment, everything was always "fine", and he "got along well with everyone." Reuben opened his dark world of secrets following to go with him on his drive to reconstruct the "incidents with the girls," a starkly real commitment to his request, which, having been made, ultimately did not have to be carried out.
