> From: "Upsdell, Louise" <LOUISE92@psy.soton.ac.uk>
> Date: Thu, 23 Feb 1995 15:52:52 GMT
>
> Dear Stevan, I am slightly confused about the concept of folie a deux.
> From what I can understand, both patient and therapist enter into a
> self-fulfilling circle, which involves reinforcing each other. What I
> don't understand is why it is such a problem for a therapist to believe
> in what he or she is doing. Surely a professional must have faith in
> the therapy in order to carry it out convincingly, or is it the case
> that one of the qualifications of being a good therapist is to be a
> good con artist?! Cheers, Louise
I used "Folie a Deux" as an analogy only (real folie a deux is a shared
paranoid delusion, usually).
No problem with therapists believing in what they are doing -- if there
is a basis for the belief. For there to be a basis, it has to be
testable, tested, and the test results have to have come out positive
-- And that's not how the Grunbaum and Prioleau et al articles we
discussed make suggest it has come out, unfortunately..
Belief alone is not enough -- but it can SEEM like enough, especially if
the patient shares the belief. Hence the folie a deux (but really just a
joint spin around the hermeneutic circle...). Chrs, Stevan
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