The Poetics of Boundary Violation: Anne Sexton and Her Psychiatrist
by Charles Levin, PhD and Dawn Skorczewski, PhD
Abstract
In 1965, Frederick Duhl began a sexual relationship with his patient, poet Anne Sexton, whose previous psychiatrist, Martin Orne, had moved from Boston to Philadelphia. Little is known about this relationship, perhaps because Sexton was persuaded by health professionals, including her previous psychiatrist, not to expose Dr. Duhl. These professionals closed ranks behind Duhl, covering up the ethical misconduct, which may have contributed to Anne Sexton’s eventual suicide in 1974. Apart from documented reports elicited by her biographer, Diane Middlebrook, information about Duhl’s sexual misconduct is limited to his personal correspondence with Sexton, which Sexton preserved. The exchange of letters between them, including examples of Duhl’s amateur poetry, provides an unusual opportunity to investigate the dynamics of sexual boundary violations in psychotherapy. Sexton represents her bewildered feelings poignantly in letters to Duhl, whereas Duhl’s stilted efforts to respond to her emotional needs reveal a disturbing pattern of envious appropriation.
Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 30(2), 206-221, April 2020.
Link to Online Publication [fulltext can be requested from the library].
Discussion of this article can be found in the following publications:
Celenza, A. (2020). Righting a Wrong: A Discussion of “The Poetics of Boundary Violation: Anne Sexton and Her Psychiatrist.” Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 30(2), 222-229.
Levin, C. and Skorczewski, D. (2020). Bringing It All Back Home: Reply to Celenza. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 30(2), 230-236.
About the Authors
Charles Levin, PhD, is currently Director of the Canadian Institute of Psychoanalysis and Editor-in-Chief, Canadian Journal of Psychoanalysis/Revue canadienne de psychanalyse. He has produced a number of articles and books, including the new edited volume, Social Aspects of Sexual Boundary Trouble in Psychoanalysis (Routledge, 2021).
Dawn Skorczewski, PhD, is BPSI Affiliate Scholar Member and Silberger Paper Prize Award Winner (2015), Research Professor of English Emerita at Brandeis University, and Lecturer at Amsterdam University College. Her books and articles explore intersections of pedagogy, poetry, psychoanalysis, and trauma. Her books include Teaching Writing One Moment at a Time: Disruption and Repair in the Classroom (2005), An Accident of Hope: The Therapy Tapes of Anne Sexton (2012), Pursuing Happiness (2016, 2019), and Sieg Maandag: Life and Art in the Aftermath of Bergen-Belsen (2020).
Previous Posts:
Andrea Celenza, PhD (2020). Embodiment and the Perversion of Desire. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 89(3), 369-398.
Steven H. Cooper, PhD (2021). Donald Winnicott and Stephen Mitchell’s Developmental Tilt Hypothesis Reconsidered. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 31(3), 355-370.
Elsa Ronningstam, PhD (2021). Cultural Function and Psychological Transformation of Silence in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. In Dimitrijevic, A. and Buchholz, M.B., eds. (2021). Silence and Silencing in Psychoanalysis: Cultural, Clinical, and Research Perspectives. Routledge, pp. 105-127.
Paola M. Contreras, PsyD (2021). The Magical and the My-Person in Psychoanalysis During the Covid Pandemic. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 68(6): 1113-1126. Open Access, DOI: 10.1177/0003065120981733
Don R. Lipsitt, MD (2020). In Freud’s Pocket: A Totem of Medical Ambivalence? American Imago, 77(4): 738-751.
Rachel Brier, EdD and Anna Ornstein, MD (2020). Tracking Changes in the Disruption/Repair Sequences: Important Aspects of Clinical Work. Psychoanalysis, Self and Context.
Rodrigo Barahona, PsyaD (2020). Living the Non-Dream: An Examination of the Links Between Dreaming, Enactment, and Transformations in hallucinosis. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 89:4, 689-714.
Sarah Ackerman, PhD (2020). A Diagnosis for Psychoanalysis in the 21st Century: Freud as Medicine. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 89:4, 667-688.
Lora Tessman, PhD (2020). Review of Ghost in the Human Psyche: The Story of a ‘Muslim Armenian’ , by Vamik D. Volkan. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 56(2-3):457-464.
Steven H. Cooper, PhD (2019). A Theory of the Setting: The Transformation of Unrepresented Experience and Play. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 100:6, 1439-1454.
Anton Hart, PhD (2020). Principles For Teaching Issues Of Diversity In A Psychoanalytic Context. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 56:2-3, 404-417.
Lawrence J. Brown, PhD (2020). Trauma and Representation. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 100:6, 1154-1170.
Penelope Moore, LICSW (2020). Incest from a Young Age … Lasting a Lifetime. Psychodynamic Psychiatry, 48(1), 41-54.
Judith L. Kantrowitz, PhD (2020). A Psychoanalytic Memoir: The Analyst Enabled and Disabled by What is Personal. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 68(1), 83–100.
Cuneyt Iscan, MD (2020). Learning Along the Way: Further Reflections on Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy by Patrick Casement, Routledge, Abingdon and New York, 2019, 156pp. American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 80:2, 235-239.
Click here to see a full archive of featured papers. All articles can be requested from the library.
