Download Author: Friedman, Bruce Jay

2 eBooks available.

Black Angels

The profession of psychotherapy originated within the entrepreneurial context of the private practice of medicine, and, like all other professionals, psychotherapists charge fees. Psychotherapists can be paid directly by their clients, reimbursed by insurance companies, or salaried by institutions. No matter how payment is handled, there is some tension between the practical concerns of commerce and those of humanitarianism in the practice of psychotherapy. Some critics view psychotherapy as a form of purchasing friendship. Questions concerning the price tag of caring and listening inevitably arise during the course of therapy. “Black Angels” is a fantasy about the business aspects of therapy. (14 pp.)

Mr. Prinzo’s Breakthrough

Facing the limitations of what psychotherapy can actually accomplish, and determining realistic criteria to assess a patient’s readiness to terminate, pose problems for therapists and patients alike. The relief of “symptoms” is probably the most widely accepted criterion of readiness for termination. The wild parody “Mr. Prinzo’s Breakthrough,” by Bruce Jay Friedman, dramatizes a patient’s pervasive distrust and frantic testing of the ground rules and boundaries of the therapeutic relationship. In his seventh year of treatment, Mr. Prinzo longs for his dramatic therapeutic “breakthrough” and pushes the issue of basic trust to an absurd and darkly humorous conclusion. (23 pp.)