Client "AP", Session 159: January 03, 2014: Client discusses his mother's narcissistic behavior and how it runs throughout his family. Client's move abroad is starting to inch closer and become more of a reality. trial

in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Collection by Dr. Abigail McNally; presented by Abigail McNally, fl. 2012 (Alexandria, VA: Alexander Street, 2014, originally published 2014), 1 page(s)

TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO FILE:


BEGIN TRANSCRIPT:

THERAPIST: You left this here yesterday out there.

CLIENT: I did? I’m sorry. Oh, shit.

THERAPIST: I happened to see it.

CLIENT: Thanks. Out there. Really? I wonder where . . ? Oh – when I was putting on my jacket. See, that’s what I’m talking about. (pause) Oh, man. I feel a little better today I think. Yesterday something was off. The weather . . . I just felt claustrophobic and a little stir crazy and really fucking annoyed. Not annoyed – something. Frustrated or something. I was just in a mood. [00:01:02] Today I am, too, a little bit; but I’m a little better. (pause) I was thinking today about how my mom probably annoyed the shit out of my dad for years. If she annoys me this much then yeah, that’s a pretty powerful dynamic – parent and child – but man, wife and husband. I think she probably annoyed the shit out of him. I’m just wondering I don’t know how my dad could have possibly dealt with her personality. I don’t know unless she was very different with him or something. I don’t know. [00:02:02] She’s very difficult. I’m fucking shoveling the snow today and the plow guy comes. Okay, great. I’m just doing the other stuff. She can’t help herself. She has to come down. She’ll yell things out like, “Don’t put the salt there. Put the salt here.” I’m like dude, are you kidding me? She just can’t – do you know what I mean? She has to really butt her nose in things. She can’t not. It’s not just me. It’s her personality. It’s not just me either. In conversations she’ll always turn it around. You’ll say something about like, let’s say, your children. I can almost guarantee she’ll say, “Oh, my Brian was like that.” She has to have a reference point to say “yes, me too.” Like, “You have children that did x, y and z? My son did x, y and z, too.” Or “Your job is really hard? Oh, my God. My job is really hard, too.” And it becomes about her job. [00:03:02] That’s annoying fucking shit.

THERAPIST: Never really seeing or hearing the other person.

CLIENT: I don’t know what that is. I don’t understand what the fuck that is and I don’t understand why . . . I guess her sister has it, too. I don’t know. Actually, yeah, my uncle does, too, in his own way. My mom just talks the most kind of. My aunt does, too, actually. My uncle is like that. He doesn’t even ask how you’re doing or whatever, really, so obviously it’s all about him again; but at least he doesn’t talk as much so he keeps under the radar a little bit. (pause) It’s really annoying; really, really annoying. I don’t know why today, of all days, I was like how am I going to handle this shit? [00:04:02] This is insane. “Oh, I think the tenant is upset. Look – she’s waiving her arms. I think she’s upset.” First of all, why are you just standing around monitoring whatever is happening out your door or whatever. That’s just weird. Second of all, even if she is upset, I don’t give a shit. If she is she’ll talk to me about it and, of course, she wasn’t. It’s fine. It’s really, really unbearable. It’s really unbearable because, of course, when you get upset you’re the one being weird. “This anger of yours. This is very bad.” Dude, I don’t know what to tell you. I can only imagine that with my dad, pissing him off and then he has to feel bad because he’s pissed at her idiocy. [00:05:00] (pause) I don’t know. (pause)

I don’t have any money now. This is not good. The weather . . . I just feel just fucking fucked up. (pause)

THERAPIST: And your mother.

CLIENT: I’ve never been in this situation before. What?

THERAPIST: Your mother looming with her criticisms and her judgment.

CLIENT: Also because I have nowhere to turn really. Yeah, I can turn to some friends or whatever, but really, at the end of the day, it’s like I’m just sick of this shit. Sick of it. (pause) [00:06:18] In that way I do feel like I’m leaving because of this. It’s hard for me to separate. I know I’m choosing to, but it feels like it; circumstantially, it feels like I just can’t take it here anymore. I don’t like that. I don’t like that feeling. (pause)

THERAPIST: Like you’re running away from her.

CLIENT: Yeah, exactly. It’s not in a pleasant way. It should be. I should reorient the way that I’m thinking about it but I’m having trouble between the money thing and her and everything just feels at a tipping point. [00:07:12] (pause) I’m also realizing I don’t think there’s another choice unless I get really lucky and get some amazing job around here very, very soon. (pause)

THERAPIST: She was telling you where to put the salt?

CLIENT: She cannot not be hyper-vigilant about every little thing that’s going on around the house. [00:08:06] It’s impossible. Our house gets the most pollution from the street. You literally don’t know what you’re saying. That’s the dumbest . . .

THERAPIST: Pollution.

CLIENT: Yeah, we’re getting the most car exhaust. Our neighbor isn’t. Eight feet away. These are two family homes, so eight, 20, 30, 50 feet away.

THERAPIST: Why that’s even on her mind that she’s thinking about it.

CLIENT: Exactly. How long have you lived in Cheshire? What car? What are you talking about? It’s beautiful weather here. “No, the last ten years the traffic is just unbearable. Dust and dirt.” [00:09:00] “You know, this car yesterday parked in front of the house. It was just there for two hours.” What are you talking about? Who the fuck gives a shit? Some of it could be old age, as she is 70, so as intelligent as she is she’s an old lady now and that’s stuff people do at that age. They start being curmudgeonly weirdos, but if it was in a cuter way and if she didn’t have a history of driving me insane, that’s one thing. But Jesus Christ . . . (pause) So she’ll look at the neighbor shoveling and me shoveling. “It’s enough, it’s enough. Come inside.” Yeah, okay. But if I come inside later you’re going to bitch and moan that it’s not clean enough. [00:10:04] “The neighbors – if someone slips outside I notice that it’s very icy on our side. If someone slips we would be in big trouble. They could sue us.” All right. So then I’m going to shovel it. Shut the fuck up.

THERAPIST: You’re getting sort of controlled and micromanaged and criticized whatever you do.

CLIENT: Yeah, that’s how they are. They’re all like that, these people, all of them. My uncle is like that. My friend, Dave, had to quit. He had an ideal employee that I had gotten. Dave, the guy that makes my rent, this fucking dude is like, “Let me know if you ever need . . . “ This guy can come to your house and if you just said, “I want to put this bathroom over there and I want to . . .” I don’t know how, he just can do it and he can do an amazing job. On top of that, he’s an amazing designer. He’s like a combo designer/construction guy. It’s perfect. [00:10:59] I keep trying to get him to start this fucking business, but he’s just non-committal. He can come and fix shit and he’s like, “I think in here if you put this color, if you painted this wall like this and if we knock down this wall . . . “ It’s just stunning the shit this guy does. So my uncle hired him and loved him in the beginning. They guy shows up on time, works fucking hard, mellow guy, doesn’t complain about anything, upbeat – all this stuff. And then it started. Dave dresses kind of like the way I would. “He’s very scruffy. You know, this is a clinic.” Dude, the guy is the construction property guy. How do you want him to show up to work? “He’s got his beard.” It started with that and then, at first, Dave would joke about it, but it got to the point where Dave was like, “I can’t. He won’t let me do my job. I’ll do something and then he’ll be like, ‘but if we moved it just two inches that way . . . ‘“[00:12:02] I don’t know what it is about these people. Is that OCD? What is that, narcissism? I don’t understand what that is. It’s like he can’t just let it be. Obviously, it’s not a money issue. He’s loaded. He can’t even calm the fuck down and be like, “Hey, whatever, man. Two inches, whatever. It looks beautiful. Thanks, Dave.”

THERAPIST: At least with your mother it sounds incredibly narcissistic. She’s thinking about what’s in her mind all the time, not at all thinking about what’s in your mind or whether you think you’ve done enough shoveling or just letting you do it, just trusting that it will be fine and you’ll figure it out. Why she’s even saying “come in,” for example. You’re a big boy. You can come in when you’re done, right? [00:12:58]

CLIENT: Yeah, it’s insane. I guess that is what it is, they’re all just incredibly narcissistic. By the way, my uncle also fixed his nose.

THERAPIST: Really?

CLIENT: Yes, I just thought of that.

THERAPIST: You didn’t tell me that.

CLIENT: It just popped into my head because of narcissism – I was just thinking about all of them. Yeah, he fixed his nose. And for a long time – I’m assuming it was a lie. As I got older I assumed it was a lie because I remember being very, very little I was so attached to him. He looked like he had gotten the shit kicked out of him and for many years the lie was that he broke it boxing, that he used to like to box and he broke it. Now maybe that’s true, but I don’t think so. Later it was pretty obvious that he had his nose fixed.

THERAPIST: Fixed?

CLIENT: Whatever – done, plastic surgery, whatever it is. It’s major, major. I have that, too, in me, obviously. I worked really hard. [00:14:02] I’ve gotten very good at trying to just be aware of it and trying to catch myself.

THERAPIST: There is also, though, the kind of way you were describing narcissism as not just a pride, but more the idea of . . .

CLIENT: Yeah, it’s not necessarily about the way they look or whatever, it’s overall like they’re the center of things.

THERAPIST: It’s different than vanity. You know I don’t mean that.

CLIENT: It’s not vanity. They have that, too, but it’s not that mostly.

THERAPIST: What you’re describing is more like the layer of it is just the idea that there is not another mind in the room, like she can’t think beyond her own mind about your separate mind, your separate capacities or you shoveling this way because that’s the way you think it works best. She might think it’s better another way and that doesn’t necessarily make her right. [00:15:02]

CLIENT: Right. No, they don’t have that. None of them have that.

THERAPIST: Your uncle moving the wall two inches is sort of like “this is the way it would have been right.” Well, that’s not what Dave thinks.

CLIENT: It’s amazing.

THERAPIST: But he thinks he’s right.

CLIENT: And he sticks with that and now he has shitty people – my cousin who can’t fucking work, who is just using him for the money; this other dude that’s okay, but he’s no Dave. And even then he’s still like, “You know the thing about these workers is maybe I’m too picky, but no matter what, no one will do it the way that I would do it.” Well then, I don’t know what to tell you, dude. You’re going to die a miserable rich man. Are you serious? My aunt is totally off. She’s completely off her rocker with her crazy theories which, again, is all about her experiences, her thoughts are the main ones. [00:16:03] Everything else is not to be trusted. (pause)

I’ll tell you, I caught myself. I was going to joke with my mom about these two Assyrian guys, from Assyria guys, who had a run-in with my friend, Jeff. These are like Assyrian folk musicians. They had a run-in with my friend, Jeff, who is also a musician. It’s a soap opera-ish story. Long and short of it, they accused Jeff of (chuckles) threatening their lives. This guy had to go to court and everything. Of course, he goes to court and it’s completely thrown out. They’re like “what?” That got completely thrown out. New Year’s Eve these two same guys get arrested. Why? Because they showed up at a hotel at 6:00 PM before a New Year’s Eve banquet where these other Assyrian guys were going to perform and they beat the crap out of them with baseball bats because they were kicked out of the band a month ago. [00:17:05] That’s fucking hilarious and it also proves that these guys are animals, right? I caught myself, though, to tell my mom that because guess what? That’s not a light-hearted . . . I can’t be like, “Can you believe this? That’s fucking hilarious.” “Yes, Assyrians are like this, the ones from Assyria. We lived there. I know. Those men . . . “It would become this whole fucking thing so I can’t. I can’t share what I think is a hilarious story because immediately it will be that Assyria is some kind of monolithic “the men will eat you alive and they’re all drunkards and fight and hoodlums” and whatever.

THERAPIST: It becomes some grand [political] (ph?) statement every time, rather than the specific people of every situation.

CLIENT: That’s everything. Everything becomes that way. You can’t say one word. [00:18:02]

THERAPIST: Women are like this. Americans are like this. It becomes so big and [bold] (ph?). There are no specific people, including you. (pause)

CLIENT: But in a sad way, there is also not really them because they clearly don’t know themselves. That’s just a robotic thing. They have no idea who they really are. It’s sad. (pause)

THERAPIST: Why did you think it was hilarious? Because they got beaten with a baseball bat?

CLIENT: Only hilarious because of the irony of it. They put Jeff through hell. They threatened their lives. The poor guy had to go to court and they completely pulled it out of their asses. The other guys are okay, by the way. I wouldn’t have laughed like that if they were dead or something. They had to get a couple of stitches, but they were released from the hospital. Just the idea. It’s so buffoonish. Fucking 6:00 PM. You thought no one was going to . . ? First of all, you’re attacking people who know you. So what? You just thought they weren’t going to tell anybody? Lay there bleeding and not go to the hospital and have to file a police report? It’s just buffoonery. I don’t know if they still think they’re in some eastern-European backwater or something but . . . (pause) I’m realizing that I don’t really have a choice. I should have realized this quite a while ago. Maybe I did start realizing it; that’s why I went to the U.K. and then I went back. But now that the job thing got fucked, now I really see that this isn’t working. [00:20:02] Darien is not a place where someone like me in this circumstance can be truly independent. I would have to make a lot of money. I would have to have a job that pays me so well that I can live on my own, not have roommates, pay for all of my expenses, do this, do that, and still have money left over. That’s just a reality. I would have to move to. And if I’m not going to move – do you know what I mean? I have to try to just have a positive outlook about going to Assyria, that it’s a good opportunity and that it will be great and blah, blah, blah. I just don’t like this. I don’t like that it’s this way.

THERAPIST: It’s terrible that you didn’t have the [cottage] (ph?) for the next couple of months, that’s what makes it really, really inconvenient, but [RJ] (ph?), this is what you wanted to do.

CLIENT: I know. [00:21:04]

THERAPIST: Again, there still feels like a way you forget that you’re making choices, like “I don’t have a choice.” That could be a kind of paranoid fantasy that you’re getting kicked out by the country without knowing that you are deciding you don’t want to move. That’s not the life that you want. You’d rather move to Assyria.

CLIENT: I get that, but there are choices and there are choices. Yes, of course, I’m making the choices, but I just wish it were in a more pleasant manner. Do you know what I mean? It would be different if I was working, I had the money right now in the bank to buy my ticket and just be like, “Yeah, I’m just going to go. This is awesome. This is pretty exciting.” This feels very rushed and kind of slightly messy and something. That’s what I’m saying. Of course it would be very good if I could just call up the airlines, charge my airplane ticket, have a few thousand dollars in the bank that I had saved from years of working or whatever. That’s what I’m saying. I have to cobble this fucking thing together and I’m really tired of doing shit like that? Then I’m scared that I’m going to go there and come back and then be at square one.

THERAPIST: You’re as much scared that you’re going to be there and it’s going to be successful.

CLIENT: Yeah. It might be awesome. (long pause) [00:22:57] What I just keep reminding myself is that I think it’s very healthy, this move. This is not working. This is just not working.

THERAPIST: You were feeling that very strongly before you found out the unemployment was ending. Do you remember that?

CLIENT: Yeah. That’s what I’m trying to remind myself of, that like I said, before I went to London, this has been a long time I’ve been trying to get – you know. The difference is I’m stubborn and I’m trying to do it my way. I’m proud of that and it looks like it might be working out now, but it’s also tiring.

THERAPIST: Once again, there is a “you” making choices and sticking to something. You could have compromised those choices and go do something that you don’t feel like doing and buy into that. You don’t want to do that. You’re not doing it. You would rather teach in Assyria and there is an opportunity to do that that you’ve figured out and see where that leads you, to play in Assyria, to write in Assyria. [00:24:14] (pause) Do you think about going sooner? I know you said friends had brought that up to you and it was hard to hear. I’m sure they’re looking for faculty for the Spring semester, in other words.

CLIENT: Oh, you know, that didn’t even cross my mind. The Spring semester. Wow, that didn’t even cross my mind. I guess I could ask. I would assume that would be very soon. I could find out, I guess. Yeah, I could ask. I don’t know.

THERAPIST: I know that’s really soon. I don’t know when their semester starts.

CLIENT: It just feels like teaching so quickly . . . [00:25:06] I should ask. I should ask.

THERAPIST: It might end up feeling too soon.

CLIENT: I’m just worried that if I ask her, the way this woman has been, I have a feeling she might be like, “Yeah, we could probably hook you up with one course. That’s short notice, but yeah. We probably could hook you up with one course.” Then I’m in a bind because if I say no, then I feel kind of bad that I ask. Do you know what I mean? Like, “Well, on second thought, it’s too soon. I’m not going to come.”

THERAPIST: You want to be prepared to go.

CLIENT: I like our rapport. I like that I finagled it the way that I have and we talked and okay, it’s summer teaching. But you’re right. I wish I had asked that maybe before. That’s when I should have thought of it. “Just for the hell of it, I’m curious. If I came in the end of December or January, what’s that like?” [00:26:01]

THERAPIST: I don’t know if I’m right. I’m not even saying that. It’s just thinking about that as an option.

CLIENT: No, no. It’s not about right or wrong. It would have been interesting to have asked that before.

THERAPIST: And I for some reason thought – maybe this is wrong – I had in my mind that she mentioned “we would love you here in the spring” and you said to her . . .

CLIENT: That’s what I’m saying. Her whole thing is “just be here.” She was like, “You could be here today and there’s plenty to do.”

THERAPIST: You had to push her off. Didn’t that happen? You said, “No, not until next year.”

CLIENT: Yeah, that just seemed so . . . I’m so not that way these days. I don’t like doing that any more. I just want things to be a little more of a smoother transition and tie up loose ends. Also because at the time she kept saying there was plenty to do and I was like what the fuck do you mean “there’s plenty to do?” Will I be faculty or not? I’m sure there’s plenty to do, but – so there was also that. [00:27:08] Until we ironed that out it was already early December or whatever. I could just go, regardless of teaching. Clearly I’m going to find stuff to do, I guess. Yeah, I could just go whenever. Really the only reason I’m not is because everyone has told me they’re having one of the coldest winters they’ve ever had. It’s something like 7° every day or something . My friends who moved there are like, “It’s not a good first impression. You could get kind of depressed and it’s just fucking cold and dreary. You’re not going to have a car. You can’t just hop in your car and warm it up. You’re going to be walking everywhere. It’s a little intense if you’ve never been here.” [00:28:02] So my thinking was that I’m sure it’s going to still be kind of cold in March, but now they’ve had something like two or three weeks of 7°, 10°, 5°. It’s unusually cold. But you’re right, if I found a cheap ticket for February or something – yeah.

THERAPIST: Again, I don’t know what’s right. It’s not that I’m right, it’s more just saying you actually have choices in front of you that you can decide if you want to go then or now.

CLIENT: Some of it might have to do with renting the apartment. Probably in a week or two or whatever I’ll start gearing up to put it on Craig’s List or advertise it at Brown or wherever. If I find that someone really great comes along really fast – yeah. If they want it for like February 15th – fine. [00:29:02] (long pause) [00:30:06]

THERAPIST: I also wonder if it makes sense to check in about paying for this. It’s going to be hard [ ] (inaudible at 00:30:13)

CLIENT: I know. I know I’m fucked. I don’t know how I’m . . . (sighs) I actually was going to bring a check today but, of course, my checkbook in my car has no more checks in it; but I think I can pay definitely soon another $60 or $120 or whatever. Then I’m going to have to, like everything else, I’m just going to have to cobble it together somehow. I think I don’t want to face the inevitable, which is that I have to borrow some money.

THERAPIST: Maybe from your mom?

CLIENT: No.

THERAPIST: From a friend? [00:31:00]

CLIENT: Yeah. I have one friend, one older friend who . . . I just don’t want to because he’s so insane. He’s been after me about fixing my car.

THERAPIST: That one. Yeah.

CLIENT: My car didn’t pass the emissions because of the stupid electrical thing so it’s got a rejection sticker and every single time he’s like, “Dude, just go find out how much it is and let’s pay it. That’s all.” I hate that that’s the situation that now I’m going to owe him. I still owe my other friend for fixing my car because it’s been piecemeal. Sometimes I can pay him a little bit back; sometimes I can’t. And he’s awesome. They don’t care, but I don’t like that, man. I don’t like that, but I don’t know what choice I have because I don’t need like $100, I need a chunk of money. It’s not that my mom doesn’t want to help me. [00:32:03] (pause)

THERAPIST: [I’m comfortable with it.] (ph?) I know there has been this balance. It’s been sort of hovering in the same place [ ] (inaudible at 00:32:19) in the last few weeks. I know you can’t pay that off before you go if you go. I know you’re good for it and I know you can and you will.

CLIENT: (chuckles) It will probably be easier to pay it when I’m there, but yes.

THERAPIST: The other part is just not wanting it to keep accruing for you while things are really, really, really tight. I don’t know exactly what the solution is. It has also occurred to me when you’re there we wouldn’t be able to do the recording any more in terms of paying for sessions if we were to do the same sessions. [00:33:04] Do you know what I mean? We can’t record it, I don’t think, unless there’s some way of recording it. There may be some way. I can look into it.

CLIENT: Recording as in what?

THERAPIST: An audio recording of the session.

CLIENT: Well we could just record. Right?

THERAPIST: Maybe.

CLIENT: Because you’re still going to hear my voice like this.

THERAPIST: Yeah.

CLIENT: But I know what you mean. We’d have to look into that.

THERAPIST: I can double check also the date. I don’t know exactly when the date was that they were going to be able to do that through until it was three years from when we started.

CLIENT: Wow. That’s only been a year, right?

THERAPIST: It’s been maybe a year and a half with the recorders. It might be about a year, but again I don’t know how it would work through doing that through Skype and I also don’t know if you would be able to pay for it from there or how you pay for it from there, on your end of things. [00:34:05]

CLIENT: I’ll still have my account here so what I would do is just an electronic from Baltimore Savings just to have them send to you. That’s the thing. These things are fucking easy. (chuckling) If I had a regular income, long ago I would just send out this fucking check every month. That’s what I would do. That’s the ironic thing. I have a feeling I’m going to be able to afford it there because things will be different. Even here if I got rid of my car, for example, that one thing would be a big deal, but it just doesn’t work here. Not that it doesn’t work, it really is inconvenient so I held onto it, especially when my car is paid off and it’s like I have this car. [00:35:08] But over there, there aren’t going to be these other expenses that here are burdensome, like my cell phone. You have to shell out a lot of money for these stupid, fucking iPhones. I won’t have that because in Europe they have just a normal system where you just fucking top it off. You go put to $20 on it; that’s what you use. What I’m saying is regardless up until I leave I’ll still try to chip away as much as possible and regardless of whatever we decide, then I’ll just pay you through the bank. [00:36:01] (long pause) [00:37:03]

THERAPIST: It sounds almost like it still makes sense to stick with the frequency that we have for the time being, not to go down.

CLIENT: No, no, no. Are you kidding? This is the one fucking – yeah. (pause)

THERAPIST: One fucking what?

CLIENT: It’s the one consistent, good . . . It’s a huge help. (pause) It’s my only reason now to come to the Square. (chuckles) At least there is that. At least I can still come to the Square.

THERAPIST: Things have changed.

CLIENT: Insane [00:38:03]

THERAPIST: Even though it’s really hard for you now, I think you’ve had some [results.] (ph?) It’s so

important to keep in mind how much they’ve changed in a really good way [ ] (inaudible at 00:38:20).

CLIENT: You mean change for me?

THERAPIST: yeah.

CLIENT: I thought you meant change just in general.

THERAPIST: No, I mean you’re not coming into the Square anymore. Your priorities, what your life looks like; it’s been changing.

CLIENT: Yeah, definitely for the better. It feels great not to come to the Square all the time.

THERAPIST: That’s what I meant. That’s just not where your priorities are.

CLIENT: Yeah, you’re right.

THERAPIST: The bigger things, the long-term picture, what really [ ] (inaudible at 00:38:51) you in a realistic way is more front and center. [00:39:00]

CLIENT: Yeah, and I think you’re right. I always try to remind myself because I am having trouble feeling excited, but I try to remind myself that it’s just because it’s a lot. There is also stuff here that is really frustrating and annoying so it’s hard for me to just be peppy about going to Assyria. Then I remind myself that it is pretty exciting; but I also feel nervous and scared because I think “Is it going to work out?”

THERAPIST: This has been a long time coming, I think.

CLIENT: Yeah, that’s, I think, what it feels like inside. The trial run was going to London – and that was pretty good – but it didn’t take because there was no revenue. [00:40:06] This is a totally different situation and a much, much, much, much, much cheaper place where I know people.

THERAPIST: And with revenue.

CLIENT: And with revenue – and not just haphazard revenue.

THERAPIST: And Assyria.

CLIENT: Yeah. Yeah.

THERAPIST: Which, if there was ever a destiny about a place for you to go (chuckles) – not that I’m fearless. You know that.

CLIENT: Yeah. It’s timing. It just seemed like the intersection between working hard on myself and opportunity and the right place at the right time just all coming together. It just seems like the smart and healthy thing to do.

THERAPIST: And realistic and thoughtful opportunity. It’s not a kind of pie-in-the-sky, [hare-brained] (ph?) idea. It’s real. [00:41:06]

CLIENT: Which, again, started with London.

THERAPIST: Absolutely.

CLIENT: I went there for a purpose and it’s not quite done yet, but it’s closer than not.

THERAPIST: You closed a book, though. (both laugh)

CLIENT: Exactly. Exactly. So I’ve been working at this for a while. So Wednesday? Be safe out there.

THERAPIST: You, too.

END TRANSCRIPT

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Abstract / Summary: Client discusses his mother's narcissistic behavior and how it runs throughout his family. Client's move abroad is starting to inch closer and become more of a reality.
Field of Interest: Counseling & Therapy
Publisher: Alexander Street Press
Content Type: Counseling session
Format: Text
Original Publication Date: 2014
Page Count: 1
Page Range: 1-1
Publication Year: 2014
Publisher: Alexander Street
Place Published / Released: Alexandria, VA
Subject: Counseling & Therapy; Psychology & Counseling; Health Sciences; Theoretical Approaches to Counseling; Work; Family and relationships; Teoria do Aconselhamento; Teorías del Asesoramiento; Choice behavior; Family relations; Narcissism; Psychoanalytic Psychology; Anxiety; Anger; Psychoanalysis
Presenting Condition: Anxiety; Anger
Clinician: Abigail McNally, fl. 2012
Keywords and Translated Subjects: Teoria do Aconselhamento; Teorías del Asesoramiento
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