The psychotherapist and one-way intimacy

Several prominent psychotherapists have asserted that many therapists use their relationships with clients to gratify desires for controlled, "one-way" intimacy in which they are less vulnerable than the clients. The present experiment tested the hypotheses that (1) therapists have higher...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychotherapy (Chicago, Ill.) Ill.), 1982-01, Vol.19 (1), p.48-53
Main Authors: Waldroop, James A, Hurst, James C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Emotional Control
Family Relations
Human
Intimacy
Psychotherapists
Therapist Trainees
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Several prominent psychotherapists have asserted that many therapists use their relationships with clients to gratify desires for controlled, "one-way" intimacy in which they are less vulnerable than the clients. The present experiment tested the hypotheses that (1) therapists have higher needs for control and intimacy than the normative population; (2) need for control is negatively related to quantity and quality of family involvement; and (3) therapists categorized as pseudo-intimate have higher need for control than those categorized as intimate. The FIRO-B and assessments of structured interviews by blind raters provided data on 26 male practicing psychotherapists (aged 29-61 yrs) and 28 male doctoral students (aged 24-48 yrs). None of the hypotheses were supported. Therapist and trainee need scores were similar, and both groups had lower needs for inclusion and needs to be influenced by others than are the norm. Roughly two-thirds of the therapists were categorized as intimate and one-third as pseudo-intimate. Results do not support the idea that therapists gratify their neurotic needs through working with clients. Implications for future research and for therapist selection and training are discussed. (20 ref)
ISSN:0033-3204
1939-1536
DOI:10.1037/h0088416