Covert Ops and Psychoanalysis? Who Knew

While I advocate in analytic treatments for openness and authenticity, I was surprised that Henry A Crumpton, whose book The Art of Intelligence: Lessons from a Life in the CIA's Clandestine Service which came out today, stated some things that good spies have in common with therapists, namely "an intense intellectual curiosity; willingness to deal with ambivalent situations [by which I took he meant ambiguity]; and a certain degree of creativity." Part of me shudders. Still, I like to see our work as therapists as one of collaboration, where both parties strive, by the very nature of their relationship, toward a common purpose, not enemies except in moments of rupture, not out to deceive the other except in protection of the sense of self coupled with a longing to be known and understood. Therapy is a tricky business, no precious metals to be acquired, no missile heads to be dismantled, no foreign dignitaries to be protected, but sometimes a sense of life or death for a particular self state or relationship, an urgency to find one another in the tumult of the outside world, and a hope that we each will sleep more peacefully tonight.