ABSTRACT
Patients are generally much more terrified than the people realize. Patients have learned to hide this terror, because parents, friends, and professionals are often frightened by the person who appears terrified. Often this terror only comes out in dreams and nightmares, in reaction to certain drugs, or in the later stages of intensive psychotherapy. In this chapter, the author attempts to focus on how fear and power are inextricably intertwined. Feelings of power are related to feelings of helplessness, and so it is difficult to talk about one without the other. If the therapist is especially friendly, the terror in the patient may experience this as a criticism of the patient's unhappiness or irritability or seriousness. It takes a great deal on the therapist's part to be the target for such projections, otherwise he or she might be considered simply masochistic. Psychotherapists must be comfortable letting themselves experience high degrees of power, as well as high degrees of helplessness.
