ABSTRACT
This story is about transgression and the permanent scars it leaves behind. Though in the story the form transgression takes is around breaking the ultimate taboo of the therapeutic encounter, and proceeding to have sexual contact with a patient, transgression, more often than not, takes many subtler forms. In a relational context, both therapist and patient benefit enormously and can take pleasure from the therapeutic encounter, yet, the ethical premise of therapy is that, at the same time, the therapist makes the space for the patient’s unresolved feelings and entanglements, and in this sense, the relationship is not an equal one. Any agenda on the part of the therapist, other than making the space for the patient, constitutes a potential transgression. So, at the core of psychotherapy is a paradox; The therapist is an actively involved party in the intense and intimate relationship that therapy is, and yet, he/she needs to abstain from using the patient for the satisfaction of his/her own needs.
