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Article on Anne Sexton and her psychiatrist

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Dr. Richard Grossman:
Hi everybody,

There's an interesting article/interview by Ruth Graham in today's Boston Globe on Anne Sexton and her psychiatrist, Martin Orne.  The sessions were recorded, and only one previous biography on Sexton in 1991 by Diane Wood Middlebrook made use of the tapes.  Here's the link:

"What Anne Sexton told her psychiatrist
A new book mines the poet’s confidential therapy tapes. Author Dawn Skorczewski of Brandeis University explains why."

http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2012/03/24/what-anne-sexton-told-her-psychiatrist/sbNcF9CdZGu9yyHdF6BBuL/story.html


Here's one of the lines from the interview with Skorczewski (the author of the new book):

"In one of their final sessions before Orne left Boston, Sexton...says in essence, that’s what we did, we gave birth to me: “the discovery of a human being.”"

Comments?

Richard

BonesMS:
I have HUGE mixed feelings about this as I can look at both sides of the coin.  Based on what I learned in school about professional ethics, I don't feel that it was appropriate for Orne to make these tapes of their treatment sessions public, regardless of the fact that the client committed suicide.  The Code of Ethics, as I understand them, state that once a client, always a client and that the cloak of confidentiality must remain in place.  How would anyone feel if their therapists published their comments, posthumously, in order to make money off of selling a book?  I am NOT comfortable with it at all!!!

Then to make matters worse, the NEXT therapist has a sexual relationship with his client, which is CLEARLY a violation of Professional Ethics!!!!!  The power differential puts the therapist at an advantage and the client at a DISADVANTAGE.  In my opinion, for what it's worth, any therapist who has sex with a client is committing professional rape!  I think that might have been a factor in Sexton's decision to end her life as the second therapist dismantled whatever progress the client and her first therapist accomplished.  WHAT was the second therapist THINKING when he started having sex with her?!?!?!?  Did he EVER think of the phrase:  "First, do NO harm?!?!?"  Clearly not!  He was simply thinking with a different part of his anatomy!

Now if Orne had simply changed the name of his client, to protect confidentiality, but used the situation as a teaching tool in a textbook, (which I've read in my graduate school textbooks), then I can understand.  I DON'T understand the ripping away of the cloak of confidentiality.

Bones

sKePTiKal:
Well, the goal of therapy - from the client's point of view anyway - is to discover the human being that they are, right? Get comfortable with that human. Like that human... and learn to take care of that being in healthy ways.

I (OK, those were the Twiggy-days) remember Anne Sexton (and Sylvia Plath) and how they made the news. In some ways, they shattered some myths about women in the mainstream consciousness. Broke ground on topics that previously were "unmentionable" in "polite society" and they exposed themselves mercilessly in the process. There was a lot of negative judgement levied against their work (outside of certain academic circles). That took the most extraordinary amount of courage.

Several of us keep coming back to the idea of publishing - in one form or another - our stories. Some of us even have published... or written screen-plays... or... we've most definitely "published", albeit semi-publicly, here. It is important to tell our stories. Not just as a method of healing, but for others. The first time I discovered this site... and read some of the posts... the sense of recognition of people who had something in common with my own struggles got me hooked and addicted almost immediately. That "being a member of..."  - connection - belonging... absolutely filled a deep longing I uncovered in my own therapy. I'm still learning; still fixing that.

It sounds from the snippets of tape that was reported, that Anne would've benefited from directly sharing her story and surely "gave permission" in the statements that "if it could help someone else"... they could be used/published... and it would appear, though of course I haven't read the book yet, that the tapes are more background material informing the biography... than lengthy direct transcripts of therapy sessions. So it's an unusual exception to the strict adherence to confidentiality, for sure. But that's beside the point of the question you asked Dr. G...

"the discovery of a human being" - pretty much sums up what "it" is all about, doesn't it? And the "it" can be defined as a lot of different things.

No better, no worse... than any other human being. Most of us. (I haven't made up my mind yet as to whether truly saintly or evil people exist; or whether it's only their actions & intents that are definitely evil... it doesn't seem too important to my way of understanding people, the world & life).

BonesMS:
I guess my feeling is that Anne Sexton did NOT sign any release forms giving permission to have any parts of her therapy sessions published and disclosing her name as the identified patient.  Her death does not give automatic permission to ignore the cloak of confidentiality.

I think the reason I feel so strongly about this is because, in a sense, I'm in a similar situation to Dr. Orne even though I don't have any recordings of the sessions I had with a famous client.  I had to confront people when they attempted to take pictures of this client, at the treatment facility, DURING the treatment period!  Needless to say, I didn't make any friends and it was probably a factor in my getting fired less than a year later because I didn't cater to fame and treat the famous client with deference, give special exceptions to the house rules, placing on pedestal, worshiping, etc.  I countered that by feeding ANY part of the addiction, we would be accomplices in the client's death!  I felt that the catering, fawning, etc., etc. fed into the addiction process.  When the "supply" was not there, then the self-medicating would escalate and the vicious cycle would repeat itself.  When that client passes away in the future, I still won't have permission to publish anything about that client.

I don't know if I'm making any sense trying to describe the pictures I'm seeing in my mind.

Bones 

JustKathy:

--- Quote ---How would anyone feel if their therapists published their comments, posthumously, in order to make money off of selling a book?  I am NOT comfortable with it at all!!!
--- End quote ---

I'm not comfortable with it either. When I share my private thoughts with my therapist, I expect them to remain that way. If I passed away, and my therapist wanted to use the content of our sessions anonymously for educational purposes, that's fine, and something I would be on board with as it might help other victims. I would NOT want my name attached to it, though. Using a famous person's name for profit is most definitely wrong. I actually see this is as being potentially dangerous. What if a celebrity who desperately needs help decides against seeing a psychiatrist out of confidentially concerns? The consequences could be dire.

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