Posted by Dinah on June 16, 2004, at 22:18:00
I really would like for my therapist to meet them. I've told him about them, of course. But I don't think anyone can truly appreciate the... extremeness, the exaggerated caricatures, the total enormity of my parents without meeting them.
I thought I had explained my parents to my therapist adequately, but I now believe that is not so. I told him yesterday about a perfect stranger who counseled me to be patient with my mother because she can't help what she is, after a chance encounter. And my therapist was surprised. He said it must feel good to have outside corroboration, and to know that I wasn't making these things up.
I always knew that. I have had so much outside corroboration that it isn't even funny. Schoolmates telling me how awful it must be to have my mother as a parent. Perfect strangers and casual aquaintances not only making remarks about her, but asking me to intercede with her on their behalf. Relatives who wish to tell me in exquisite detail why it is impossible for them to speak to her, and why all communications about family business should come through me.
I thought I had adequately conveyed this. But on further reflection, I wonder if my parents can be adequately conveyed by words alone. But my parents can't hide who they are. In a fifty minute session, my father is quite likely to tell my mother that he despises her, that she is evil incarnate, and that he'd like to kill her and/or himself. He's likely to say horrible horrible things about my brother. And my mother can't say more than a few sentences without revealing her extreme love of attention and her disregard for mere reality.
My husband won't even answer the phone when they call. He lets it ring unanswered.
What I need is a pretext to get them there, and of course, my therapist's permission. Does this sound like something that would be worthwhile to pursue?
poster:Dinah
thread:357413
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040614/msgs/357413.html