ABSTRACT
This chapter describes three clinical cases in which the patient believed that one of the therapist’s body parts was actually the patient’s: Claire’s leg; Steven’s wrist; and Jennifer’s dream of a braid. Claire, a fifty-year-old woman, had been in and out of various community mental health treatment facilities before she settled into twice-weekly psychotherapy for the first time. The “leg” references had a curious effect on the therapist. The countertransference reaction, at first, was one of a physical, psychological, and emotional “jolt.” The precipitant to that original hospitalization may have had to do with Steven’s venturing to court a young woman, but neither the patient nor the charts were forthcoming with much information in that regard. Jennifer, a twenty-eight-year-old woman, has struggled during her life with feelings of emptiness, despair, and anger. Psychoanalysts and psychotherapists who work with psychotic patients often encounter unusual clinical phenomena.
