The wombtwin hypothesis can save you money!

On this site I read about K, a young woman with an eating disorder.

K had suffered from an eating disorder for many years. She had gone from therapy to therapy and ended up with a male psychoanalyst, who was prepared to see her five times a week, when she lay on a couch and spoke at length about her inner feelings and desires. When she began the therapy she was in deep despair.

As the therapy continued the eating disorder resolved but was replaced by a series of very dangerous accidents resulting in severe and disabling injury that occurred each time she was betrayed and disappointed by a boy friend. The therapy was very stormy as K began to feel suicidal, and the therapist began to feel as if he was in some sense keeping K alive. He worked hard to keep the therapy going, even allowing her free treatments and irregular meetings.

It was clear that here was a case of self-destructive behavior. The therapist made K promise not to kill herself. Together they traced this tendency to "early and profound childhood disappointments". K felt unlovable and therefore deserved punishment. It was assumed that K's mother did not want her and was not emotionally available, and K felt she should not have been born at all. The therapist became deeply concerned about the unprofessional depth of his involvement with this clent. He had to learn to stand back a little and let her heal on her own and be responsible for her own life. The therapy ended when at last K found a man who loved her, they married and she had children: twins.

This therapy had continued for fifteen years. That is more than 700 hours of therapy.

The report abstract ends with these words : ".... the crucial importance of longterm psychoanalytic therapy as a life-saving procedure in cases where it is appropriate, in spite of the great amount of time and expense involved."

You bet. This is surely a blatant case of an undiscovered wombtwin survivor who lost a twin brother before birth. The therapist - obviously a kind and very empathetic man - made a nice stand-in. Life was liveable for K while he was there for her. When will they learn????