Things that go bump in the night: Secrets after dark

Petrucelli, Jean

doi:10.4324/9780429476457-9

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…Octavian's pitch that he was finally going to speak as both "man and woman" at the end of his soliloquy came with perceptible relief, suggesting that his moment of narcissistic disequilibrium had been swept aside; an audible gulp could be heard over the phone from miles away. I, on the other hand, was left with self-inquiries similar to those Bok (1983), Ehrlich (2013, and Petrucelli (2010) found in their deconstruction of collusive, withheld, dissociated, or otherwise split-off secrets. What did I miss that now took me by surprise, and why did I miss it?…”

Section: Octavian: "I Can't Say It Yet"mentioning

confidence: 81%

“…Other silent queries gradually came to mind: Why did the patient decide to bring this issue into the treatment at this moment? (Petrucelli 2010). Were there subtle shifts in the transference/countertransference mix that had nothing to do with the patient's anxiety about his son's illness that allowed his secret to be spoken out loud?…”

Section: Octavian: "I Can't Say It Yet"mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Secret Life of Secrets: Deleterious Psychosomatic Effects on Patient and Analyst

Zerbe¹

2019

J Am Psychoanal Assoc

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The impact and complex nature of keeping secrets deserves greater scrutiny within psychoanalysis. While the capacity to keep a secret is a developmental achievement that furthers conscious choice and healthy boundary setting between self and others, an individual’s need for privacy must be distinguished from untoward costs of collusion and concealment. Clinical case material shows that not all secrets are unconscious or multilayered, as assumed in most of the psychoanalytic literature. Nonetheless, in these cases deleterious effects to psyche and soma took root. These patients assumed that their secret was irreparably destructive to an essential object relationship; shame, guilt, narcissistic vulnerability, unconscious identification with an injured party, and developmental deficit were other factors found to undergird this mode of pathogenic dissembling. Two clinical examples also demonstrate that embodied countertransference reactions may herald the revelation of a secret in treatment that had been hidden, but in plain view. Secrets appear to exert their profound psychological and physical effects on patient and analyst by biological mechanisms that are as yet poorly understood but are readily observed in clinical practice. Psychoanalysts who keep in conscious awareness both the adaptive value and the potential costs of maintaining the confidences of others over the course of a career are better positioned to assist their patients and themselves in rendering essential self-care.

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Section: Octavian: "I Can't Say It Yet"mentioning

confidence: 81%

Section: Octavian: "I Can't Say It Yet"mentioning

confidence: 99%