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Rating: 
Summary: Acting Out - Client In Hell
Review: A story of psychodynamic therapy gone disastrously wrong. Psychodynamic therapy can generate violent sexual feelings directed at the therapist (irrespective of client/therapist gender or orientation, incidentally) and at the same time loosen the client's grip on reality, producing perceptual distortions and a feeling of depersonalization. When these become too powerful, the client attempts to relieve herself by "acting out". In Heyward's case, this took the form of an obsession with developing a friendship with her therapist.
"Acting out" in this sense is not some form of adolescent misbehavior, but in many cases a very painful and damaging syndrome which can end in hospitalization or even suicide. I was very unimpressed with "Elizabeth"'s handling of the episode. Her main concern appears to have been to protect herself legally, which was excusable, and emotionally, which was not. From this book, one gathers that she hid behind a wall of denial, both of what was happening and of her client's suffering, and did not take any positive action to relieve that suffering, such as, for instance, arranging psychiatric care or some form of professional third-party involvement. The problem, of course, is that "acting-out" episodes are frequently attributed to therapist incompetence - "good" therapists are supposed to be able to contain them - whereas I suspect it may happen with anyone given the wrong conditions.
The reason I did not give this book five stars is that I do not agree with Heyward's contention that "patriarchal" structures were responsible for her episode. Rather, the issues were informed consent - therapy clients should be properly notified of what may happen to them, emotionally and sexually, before embarking on such a venture - and therapist ethics, in this case the need for therapists to display a sense of responsibility when therapy-induced breakdowns do occur. In effect, "Elizabeth" turned up the heat, found she couldn't take it, and ran out of the kitchen, leaving her client in hell.
Rating: 
Summary: Misses the boat
Review: Carter Heyward obviously never got through her transference, a term she dislikes. The book, although it professes to be for others, is really just a thinly-veiled self-serving,narcissistic diatribe against a therapist who, it seems clear from reading the book, established very proper boundaries which were in the patient's best interest. Evidently, Carter has never gotten over the anger she feels towards her therapist. To assume a therapist and patient can be friends outside the therapeutic boundaries denies the very nature of the therapist/patient dynamic. If Carter's therapist had become her friend, she could no longer serve as her therapist. Carter makes some very broad claims based on what seems to be very little training or knowledge of therapy. She overemphasizes the anti-patriarchal, mutuality tirades and her book becomes tiresome and redundant. Too bad her therapist doesn't have the opportunity to adequately defend herself.
Rating: 
Summary: A brilliant work & embarrassing to psychotherapy profession!
Review: Carter writes personally of her own experience in therapy, and the problems within it as a woman, lesbian, and person. Her therapy crashes, not because it failed AS A WHOLE, but because of the problems of the therapeutic model-i.e. Therapist as an authority. It is brilliant, as Carter challenges this model, which is rigid and, unfortunately, centuries old, and presses against fine boundaries which pretend to protect us but actually serve to subtley harm us. She is very sensitive, and anyone who would have strong feelings against this book either doesn't understand or has never felt the kind of passion for someone that Carter writes of. A brilliant book.
Rating:
Summary: Revolutionary
Review: Carter writes personally of her own experience in therapy, and the problems within it as a woman, lesbian, and person. Her therapy crashes, not because it failed AS A WHOLE, but because of the problems of the therapeutic model-i.e. Therapist as an authority. It is brilliant, as Carter challenges this model, which is rigid and, unfortunately, centuries old, and presses against fine boundaries which pretend to protect us but actually serve to subtley harm us. She is very sensitive, and anyone who would have strong feelings against this book either doesn't understand or has never felt the kind of passion for someone that Carter writes of. A brilliant book.
Rating:
Summary: A Challenge to Professional Ethics
Review: Heyward writes from her personal experience of a therapeutic realtionship that has gone bad and her struggle to reconcile herself and her feminist ideals with this experience. Her conclusions challenge the assumptions on which current professional ethical standards are based. She calls us to re-think the balance of power in therapeutic relationships and seek new ways to relate in feminist models of power and relationships. Mental health professionals will find her analysis disturbing as it shakes the foundations of our ethical codes. However, Heyward's analysis is an essential voice to be heard if feminist therapists truly seek to remove the patriarchal assumptions from our professional practice.
Rating:
Summary: A brilliant work & embarrassing to psychotherapy profession!
Review: I found this book to be an excellent study as to how badly a psychotherapist can damage a clients emotional and psychological health, and then blame or discredit the client for bringing on that damage, instead of taking responsibility for harming the client. This is called counter-transference in the profession. I can also fully understand why many psychotherapists including social workers and psychologists would hate this book; many therapists do not like to take responsibility for counter transference, which is basically hate or abuse directed towards clients. It does not portray the profession in a good light. It does, however, bring out many unfortunate truths inherent within the psychotherapy industry, and also is a premier as to what kind of psychotherapists to avoid. It get's five stars from me!
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