Developing a new narrative: The woman therapist and the male patient.

Discusses the impact of the participants' gender on the therapeutic dialog, in particular the relationship of women therapists to male patients, using data obtained in 13 interviews with female analysts, therapists, or students. Two issues were found to be distinctive to the woman therapist: the contradictory terrain of female authority and the meaning of intimacy with women, given the residues of the separation/individuation process. The preoedipal maternal transference, the possible defensive uses of the erotic transference (e.g., issues concerning power), and the merging of aggressive and sexual impulses are discussed vis-à-vis the dyad of the woman therapist and the male patient. Issues of fantasy and hostile transference are also discussed. (66 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)