ABSTRACT

This chapter presents a case study of a girl named Judith, Who was a lithe, petite, blue eyed blonde woman in her early twenties when Dr. Steinman first met her in a psychiatry emergency room; blood oozed from four deep self inflicted cuts on her left forearm. Affects circulate through the mind like blood circulates through the body. With Judith, Dr. Steinman is absorbed by both and he engages both. It is well known in psychiatry and psychology, that the inability to express emotions in words-alexithymia—is closely associated with psychosomatic disorders. Self psychology views pathology as breakdown products of early developmental arrest. Psychoanlaysis was born out of neurology and not unexpectedly relied on the idea that the brain was an association making machine. Psychiatrists, therapists and analysts have the reputation of being non-judgmental; but are quite judgmental when it comes to belief in delusional beings that, unchecked, may lead to harm and death.