ABSTRACT
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy can help the patient change in their experience from one of persecution and helplessness, to feeling “empowered to act in the present, out of concern for others”. The meaning of the illness may therefore be transformed from a death sentence to one of creative opportunity. This chapter shows how a therapist’s experience of cancer may have influenced the work with a particular patient. Ethical questions are raised by the therapist’s continuing to work during his own illness. Each case is different and it is vital that any therapist makes decisions in consultation with a senior colleague. A sexual orientation to children, this is a specific form of sexual deviation. It seems to arise from a pathological adaptation to various environmental factors such as neglect and abuse. Certainly, such factors are always to be found in the personal history of the paedophile.
