The Politics of Psychotherapy: A Gender Issue

Abstract

Sexual politics is very important in psychotherapy, as elsewhere, and a gender issue which has not been remarked on very much in the literature is therapist narcissism. This seems to be much more prevalent in men, and the present paper gives a good deal of evidence for this, while not claiming that the fault is peculiar to men. The essence of such narcissism seems to be a ‘stepping outside the circle’ set up between therapist and client, in such a way that the therapist becomes a separate ego. Thus it is actually anti‐relationship, and therefore doubly interesting.