Walking the Tightrope of Emotional Dwelling

This essay seeks to characterize an active, relationally engaged form of therapeutic comportment called emotional dwelling. Distinctive features of this mode of comportment are identified by contrasting it with corresponding formulations appearing in other theoretical viewpoints, including those of Freud, Ferenczi, Sullivan, and Kohut. Central in emotional dwelling is the therapist’s capacity to enter into a patient’s reality even while simultaneously holding to his or her own.