C. BALIER (Proveyzieux)
Summary:
This research work, headed by A CIAVALDINI and M. GIRARD-KHAYAT, sheds light
on the role of the transfero-contratransferential relationship as the foundation
of psychological change in sexual offenders. Most of the subjects contemplated
or even requested psychotherapeutic treatment after being confronted with their
acts from a different perspective-not of legal sanctions but of a better understanding
of what might possibly have happened inside them. The reason was, the relationship
built during an interview which the research protocol defined as an in-depth
investigation touched upon the Self cleavage process, the fundamental clinical
element of this pathology. The denial of the reality onto which the cleavage
is based was partly lifted, albeit at the cost of the investigator's involvement
in a somewhat emotional experience. There lies the difference between the transfero-contratransferential
relationship and the objective position of the cognitivist. Besides, sexuality,
including its deviances, is to be viewed in the light of the Freudian acceptation
of "sexual", not according to its sexual function. For these are actually "life
impulses"-a mix of love and violence-which express the amazing ability of the
subject to invest the environment from birth onwards. The desire for fusion,
providing superlative pleasure, is coupled with the painful recognition of separateness,
which in turn affords the pleasurable experience of rediscovering and creating
the self. The offender, unable to solve these contradictions, resorts to barbaric
solutions, i.e. rape, murder, child molestation. This confirms the value of
the incest prohibition, which allows the construction of the psyche to take
precedence over the destructive quest for the supreme, absolute pleasure of
fusion. Such scrutinizing of the psyche is a difficult task, but one that challenges
the therapist. That some of today's medical doctors should be prepared to consider
penis implants on offenders who blame some genital deformity for their peculiar
tastes is to many of us a disgrace.