‘At Least I Get a Glimpse’: South African Patients' Perspectives on Getting to Know Their Therapists

IF 0.5 Q4 PSYCHIATRY

British Journal of Psychotherapy Pub Date : 2024-06-18 DOI:10.1111/bjp.12912

Carol Long

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Abstract

The process of psychotherapy invites the patient to explore their mind and the mind of the other but does so in the context of a therapeutic relationship in which the therapist is at least partly unknown. This article explores how patients, unbeknown to their therapist, explore clues that may disclose some knowledge about their therapists. One route towards exploring the unknown is through the therapist's social identities. The article presents an analysis of interviews conducted with 11 patients attending a free clinic in Johannesburg, South Africa. Their process of exploring the therapist and encountering the unknown, and wondering about whether their therapist can know them, is presented. The therapist's social identities offer a ‘glimpse’ into the therapist's mind. The article offers an alternative way of approaching inadvertent self-disclosure and invites therapists to be aware of their patients' explorations of them that may remain unknown to therapists. Social identity offers a potential vehicle for alienation but also for connection.

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至少我可以一瞥"：南非病人对了解治疗师的看法

心理治疗的过程需要病人探索自己和他人的心理，但这是在治疗关系的背景下进行的，而治疗师至少有一部分是未知的。本文探讨了病人如何在治疗师不知情的情况下，探索可能揭示治疗师某些知识的线索。探索未知的途径之一是通过治疗师的社会身份。文章对在南非约翰内斯堡一家免费诊所就诊的 11 名患者的访谈进行了分析。文章介绍了他们探索治疗师和遭遇未知的过程，以及他们对治疗师能否了解自己的疑问。治疗师的社会身份提供了对治疗师心灵的 "一瞥"。这篇文章提供了另一种方法来处理无意中的自我披露，并请治疗师注意病人对治疗师可能不了解的自己的探索。社会身份为疏离提供了潜在的载体，但也为联系提供了潜在的载体。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

British Journal of Psychotherapy PSYCHIATRY-

CiteScore

0.90

自引率

50.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The British Journal of Psychotherapy is a journal for psychoanalytic and Jungian-analytic thinkers, with a focus on both innovatory and everyday work on the unconscious in individual, group and institutional practice. As an analytic journal, it has long occupied a unique place in the field of psychotherapy journals with an Editorial Board drawn from a wide range of psychoanalytic, psychoanalytic psychotherapy, psychodynamic, and analytical psychology training organizations. As such, its psychoanalytic frame of reference is wide-ranging and includes all schools of analytic practice. Conscious that many clinicians do not work only in the consulting room, the Journal encourages dialogue between private practice and institutionally based practice. Recognizing that structures and dynamics in each environment differ, the Journal provides a forum for an exploration of their differing potentials and constraints. Mindful of significant change in the wider contemporary context for psychotherapy, and within a changing regulatory framework, the Journal seeks to represent current debate about this context.