More on Fromm-Reichmann

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Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Letter to the EditorFull AccessMore on Fromm-ReichmannC. Brooks Henderson, M.D.C. Brooks HendersonSearch for more papers by this author, M.D.Published Online:5 Jul 2002https://doi.org/10.1176/pn.37.13.0039cWhen I was a resident in the mid-1950s, my supervisor was in a training analysis with Dr. Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, and I heard some interesting anecdotes that Dr. Fromm-Reichmann had told about herself. On her immigration voyage to the United States, she practiced her English with a young American man on the ship. Near the end of the voyage she asked him, in her heavily accented English, “Now I want that you should teach me the dirty little four-letter words that you use to say how your really FEEL.”I once attended a meeting where she reviewed the analysis of a schizophrenic patient with the patient. They were sitting in two chairs facing the audience at an angle to each other. Dr. Fromm-Reichmann asked the patient whether there was any one moment that had made a crucial difference in her recovery. The answer has guided me ever since:“Oh, yes. It was Christmas Eve in 19__. You had been sitting with me for an hour a day for a year, and I had refused to say anything to you. When you left on Christmas Eve, you said you would be back tomorrow, and I knew I had you [in a broken promise, like all the other people]. No one was going to come to see me on Christmas Day—but you came!”I have always remembered that lesson in the possible importance of seemingly insignificant acts in therapy.Dunnellon, Fla. ISSUES NewArchived