Restoring Institutional Integrity in the Wake of Sexual Boundary Violations

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that sexual boundary violations by a faculty member at an analytic institute damage the local analytic community in ways that can reverberate for years. Yet little has been written about the process of institutional recovery. With one exception, a paper published after the major protagonists had died, no actual case studies are to be found in the literature. In 2010 a senior training analyst at a psychoanalytic training program abruptly resigned under the cloud of a presumed sexual boundary violation. Seventeen months later, an APsaA Committee on Institutes site visit presented a unique opportunity to study the institutional trauma and recovery process as they unfolded. This report highlights the importance of recognizing and working through the expectable institutional resistance to processing the trauma. This enables a sensitive response to the various constituencies that have been affected and allows the integrity of the institute to be restored.