Discussion of Helmut Hinz's case

The author comments on this case report from a relational and intersubjective perspective. He emphasizes the here-and-now, interactive attunement and the emergence and development of the patient's nascent healthy core, more than the interpretation of defense. A case report of clinical material selected and condensed by someone else necessarily lacks many of the subtle, non-verbal clues and shared treatment memory that the author would rely on for his perspective. Thus he approaches this report as a written narrative of manifest interaction and gives his impressions of how he might have understood the material and responded somewhat differently. He concludes that, although he and the treating analyst would have different conceptions of how the pivotal moment emerged, the outcome might not have been very different. Finally, he challenges the common usage of 'homosexual' to denote a certain dynamic position in a context that has nothing to do with sexual desire.