ABSTRACT
I met Susie 2 two weeks after the 9/11 New York City World Trade Center tragedy. In her initial interview, as she presented her history of “serious problems with drugs, alcohol, binge eating, and shoplifting.” I felt there was something significant left unsaid. So I asked and she confessed that, following our consultation, she was going to see a judge for court sentencing relating to a drug-related crime. Forced to attend a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program, Susie now had 10 months sobriety from alcohol and drugs, but her bingeing and purging had escalated. I asked her something like,
“Well it seems very clear that you are feeling great distress, and that you need help for very many problems, not the least being the bulimia. It is equally clear that you have a way of getting people to go out on a limb for you, but what is not clear to me is whether or not you are here only because you want to use this interview as part of your argument before the judge, or whether, in fact, you want to participate in therapy.”
