ABSTRACT

Recent literature has emphasized the manipulative aspects of psychotherapy and although the tactical and strategic phases are certainly significant and must be developed to the point where they are an aid in the patient’s recovery. Commitment implies a future time and is not merely a present state. The therapist plunging into the relationship presumes a decision that the end point of this relationship will be tolerable for him. Such a commitment has certain similarities to becoming pregnant. Such commitment necessitates certain prerequisites. The object of committing oneself to intimacy with a patient is to obtain a heightened consciousness of oneself as a way of responding to crisis. Psychotherapy is an endless crisis, a rhythmic crisis of surge and ebb–a surge of intimacy, and the ebb of loneliness. Anxiety is part of the surge to intimacy just as despair is part of the ebb to loneliness.