ABSTRACT
The most pressing question posed by this case description is: How is it possible that a man who has been so brutally tortured, degraded, and sexually invaded by his family members, so isolated at crucial times during his childhood and adolescence, has been able to make such splendid use of an analysis without working through any rage or sadism in the transference? As Dr. Feit points out, it seems like “a great deal of change in a very short time.” She attributes Peter’a vocational, interpersonal, and creative triumphs to an incredible intelligence, but any sound developmental understanding would require much more to explain the presence of such apparent ego strength. We will have to examine the nature of the analytic relationship for the possible explanation. It may also be that there were mitigating factors in Peter’s development that others who write about trauma have found hard to describe without sacrificing protection of confidentiality, or relationships, hobbies, transient contacts, or friendships, the memories of which will only emerge later in the treatment.
