“The Hidden Oracle,” written under a pseudonym, is autobiographical. Whether the incidents described by the author are fictional or actually happened, they express an essential truth. Individuals who, like Crystal, dread intimacy yet intensely crave closeness cannot avail themselves of the healing potential of human relationships and have difficulty with the possibilities for relatedness in the psychotherapeutic relationship. Psychotic patients withdraw from and may respond with hostility to caring concern and intimacy. In this story a young woman who invites rejection encounters a paraprofessional who “stays with” her, thereby opening up the possibility of recovery. (13 pp.)