AIDS and the Client "In the Fast Lane"

Abstract

This constructivist account of psychotherapy with a sexually promiscuous client comes from a program funded to develop and evaluate psychotherapeutic interventions for people who are HIV-infected or have developed AIDS. Its focus is on narrative construction and reconstruction. The client is shown to tell himself a number of stories which enable him to maintain his often selfdefeating behavior which is also potentially dangerous to others. These stories provide him with the guidelines for living his life, and serve many other functions as well. In therapy they are shared with the therapist; and therapist and client together work toward a retelling of these stories, or narrative reconstruction. The account concludes with a comparison of this approach with other apparently similar therapies.