Sexual Boundary Trouble in Psychoanalysis
Clinical Perspectives on Muriel Dimen's Concept of the “Primal Crime”
Relational Perspectives Book Series

Inspired by the clinical and ethical contributions of Muriel Dimen (1942-2016), a prominent feminist anthropologist and relational psychoanalyst, SexualBoundary Trouble in Psychoanalysis challenges the established psychoanalytic and mental health consensus about the sources and appropriate management of sexual boundary violations (SBVs).

Gathering contributions from an exciting range of analysts working at the cutting edge of the field, this book shatters normative professional guidelines by focusing on the complicity and hypocrisy of professional groups, while at the same time raising for the first time the taboo subject of the ordinary practicing clinician?s unconscious professional ambivalence and potentially "rogue" sexual subjectivity. SexualBoundary Trouble in Psychoanalysis uncovers the roots of SBV in the institutional origins and history of psychoanalysis as a profession. Exploring Dimen?s concept of the psychoanalytic "primal crime," which is in some ways constitutive of the profession, and the inherently unstable nature of interpersonal and professional "boundaries," SexualBoundary Trouble in Psychoanalysis breaks new ground in the continuing struggle of psychoanalysis to reconcile itself with its liminal social status and morally ambiguous practice.

It will appeal to all psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists.

1. Introduction: From "Eew" to We: An Overview of Muriel Dimen’s Contribution to Psychoanalytic Ethics

CHARLES LEVIN

Part 1 The Primal Crime

2. Lapsus Linguae, or a slip of the tongue? A sexual violation in an analytic treatment and its personal and theoretical aftermath

MURIEL DIMEN

Part 2 Boundary Touble in the Psychoanalytic Process

3. Shadows That Corrupt: Present Absences in the Psychoanalytic Process

ANDREA CELENZA

4. Sex and Ethics: Protecting an Enchanted Space

ORNA GURALNIK

5. The Analyst’s Narcissism and the Denial of Limits

JAMES P. FROSCH

6. Unraveling: Betrayal and the Loss of Goodness in the Analytic Relationship

DIANNE ELISE

Part 3 Boundary Trouble in the Analytic Community

7. Don’t Tell Anyone

JOYCE SLOCHOWER

8. Dissociation Among Psychoanalysts About Sexual Boundary Violations

MARK J. BLECHNER

9. Do We Really Need Boundaries?

JUAN TUBERT-OKLANDER

Charles Levin, PhD, FIPA, is a training and supervising analyst, Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Psychoanalysis, and Director of the Canadian Institute of Psychoanalysis. He has edited and authored several analytic books and many articles on clinical, ethical, and cultural topics.