ABSTRACT
The following pages describe an intervention that I make from time to time in training. This type of intervention, similar in some ways to Carl Whitaker's “psychotherapy of the absurd” (Whitaker, 1975), is based nonetheless on different premises. After outlining a model I developed to describe one type of couple interaction (Elkaïm, 1990) that may lead a couple to consult a therapist, I will show how the reciprocal double bind inherent in this model can be applied to the student-trainer couple. I will explain how this model could allow trainers to help students by amplifying their worldviews and by allowing them to reenact, in a new context, a scene that has been repeated too often in the past. After describing a specific intervention of this type and my student's reaction to it, I will go on to explain why I tend to restrict this type of intervention to training contexts rather than therapeutic ones. 1
