We enter the psychotherapist's office when our stories fail us. We hope that this therapist will show genuine interest in us, understand our story, and say something helpful. Chances are, we will walk anxiously into the room with as much fear as hope.
Despite its apparent lack of success the 'sacred art' of alchemy persisted for more than seventeen hundred years. The essential duality which characterised alchemy from the very beginning, by which the work was divided into the practica and the theoria, reflects the confluence in Hellenistic times of a new spirit with a very old tradition.
The psychoanalyst's office is the place, perhaps above all others, where people tell their private stories. When analysis works at its best, each session begins with three radical assumptions: Each person has a story, their story makes sense, and it's worth listening to.
On the surface blame would seem to be a most unerotic phenomenon. When someone blames us we feel repelled, turned off, defensive, guilty, diminished, upset or angry. The bitter accusations of the offended are more likely to inhibit the erotic spirit than to kindle it.
