ABSTRACT

This chapter presents the case study of Judy and Maria. Judy presented as a rather demure teacher in her thirties, with an impeccable middle-class life situation. The first warning sign was her concern about rumours of incestuous relationships in the families of the children she taught. In due course, Judy began to see her own clients in the therapy training she was doing, and, almost immediately, it sounded as if her supervisor was being really sadistic towards her. Maria was a doctor in her early thirties, although she looked much younger. While Judy’s sessions were characterised by lack of emotion, Maria’s were fraught with tension and discomfort from the outset. Long silences where the patient is in some way tongue-tied or inhibited are a familiar experience to most analysts, but in the case of Maria, they seemed to involve a claustrophobic discomfort that was almost unbearable.