Transferential Relationship and Sexual Intimacy During Psychotherapy: A Case Tried Twice at the Court of Assizes

Abstract

The law protects the dignity and privacy of the individual, as well as the integrity of the human body. The respect
of these fundamental legal principles is especially important in medical practice and in the clinical relations
between the psychotherapist and his patient. The professional ethical and technical rules that govern psychotherapy
exclude any sexual acts or gestures of a sexual connotation.
This article discusses an affair in which a freelance psychiatrist was accused of rape by several of his female
patients. Sentenced in a first trial to 12 years imprisonment by a first court of assizes, the practitioner was
subsequently acquitted on appeal. Although always denying ever having any sexual relations with any of the
plaintiffs, he received disciplinary sanctions from the Medical Association. However, the second assizes deemed
that there were no grounds to establish that he had used “constraint”, since there had not been any physical violence
or threats.
This affair raises the issue of the consent of a female patient to having sexual relations with her psychotherapist
during the course of treatment. Despite the final acquittal, there is the question of whether the devious practices
of a therapist on individuals who are psychologically dependant and vulnerable, with intentional perversion of the
process of transference, does not constitute a true “moral constraint” that is characteristic of rape. In any case,
medical professionals should never exploit the weaknesses of their patients by abusing their own authority and the
circumstances