The Intimate Self-Disclosure

Abstract

AbstractBetsy Cohen, “The Intimate Self-Disclosure,” The San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal, 2004, 24:2, 31-46. This paper discusses the controversial topic of the analyst's use of self-disclosure. The author examines reasons for, types, limits, ethics, and a brief history of self-disclosure. Sigmund Freud warned against its use in 1912. C. G. Jung, in contrast, understood the necessary mutuality between doctor and patient in the analytic relationship. The relational school of psychoanalysis in the l980s hesitantly embraced the concept of self-dis-closure and slowly adapted its usage. The author explores her basic tenet: that an intimate self-disclosure on the part of the analyst helps further and perhaps transform the work. She uses case material based on her personal analysis in the midseventies, where her analyst's putative refusal to self-disclose both framed and impeded the therapy.