More fun at conferences or Good Enough Mother gets attacked again

A few years after the hypnosis workshop, I decided to play on the international psychoanalytic scene. It was actually a really fun conference. Psychoanalysts do like to pamper themselves. There I had the pleasure of interacting with psychoanalysts from all over the world which was just fascinating.

One day, during a coffee break out in the hall, I was introduced to an analyst from South America. She was very nervous because in a few minutes she was heading up a panel discussion on patient confidentiality and she needed some case studies as grist. Suddenly she turned to me asking if I had ever encountered any difficult situations involving patient confidentiality. I said as a matter of fact I had just encountered one and gave her a quick synopsis. She brightened up and then asked if I would present the case to the panel. I agreed and she led me down the hall to the room where the panel would take place. I'm grinning inside thinking "wait until I tell the folks back home about this".

The panel was made up of South American psychoanalysts from several countries. There was an interpreter who translated into English. Anyway soon it was my turn. I stood in place and as best as I could told the story, pausing for translation, of a couple TA and I were treating. The wife had come in to get TA's help in telling her husband that she planned to leave her husband of 15 years for her new lover. TA worked with the wife and I began work with the husband. The tricky part came early on when he asked me point blank if I thought his wife was having an affair. I had expected this question might arise so I simply asked what he thought. I recall a woman analyst to my right made the "ca-ching!" motion. I gathered she liked my approach.

The panel began to grill me at this point. A tedious professorial type droned on and on, not doing much to illuminate anyone. What surprised me then was a woman analyst from a distinguished institute who got extremely agitated about the procedure. She wasn't questioning the treatment, but the orthodoxy of TA and I working together. The more I said, the more hot under the collar she became. I thought I was about to get banished from the conference, and sent home in disgrace. But I knew our results had been impeccable and I was very pleased with the work had been done. After all a marriage not only had been salvaged but revitalized, so I really didn't care what she thought. It was just that her anger was so unexpected. Finally a Canadian psychoanalyst commented that my working arrangement was not unusual in North America. My attacker backed down. I later thanked the Canadian for helping me out.

This strange encounter grew stranger still the next day. I was on my way out of the hotel as the woman analyst from the panel was coming in. She saw me, smiled and ran up to me. She then hugged me and kissed me on both cheeks. She mumbled something complimentary to me and whisked passed me. Huh?? I took that for an apology. I keep wondering how I manage to get into these situations.