Psychotherapy by Counter-Manipulation
JAMES M. KRAININ M.D.1
1 Clinical Director of Adult Psychiatry, Mystic Valley Mental Health Center, Lexington, Mass., and Psychiatric Consultant, Danielsen Pastoral Counseling Service, Boston University, Boston, Mass.
Manipulation of the therapist by the patient can sometimes be effectively handled by the therapist's counter-manipulating. The author presents three case reports of patients who manifested behavior that was pathologic but that was perhaps the best immediate solution to altering the patients' current situation. In two cases, the therapist's counter-manipulations were therapeutic; in the third, the therapist acted to validate the patient's pathology with antitherapeutic results.
