Hi David, Joe, and others,

I've been inconsistently following this forum, and so have not read the
original case.  However, it has always interested me -- this problem of
sociopathic young people, because it constitutes such a social problem.
 Speaking as a woman living in a city, my state of hyperalertness when out
and about is only apparent to me when something seems dangerous, and then I
realize that I am always watchful.

I think the countertransference problems are difficult, not only because of
the above, and the statistics on crime, but also because the sociopathic
position seals the person off within a membrane of selfsufficiency that can
make the therapist feel useless and alone in the room,  not to mention
depreciated and ashamed,  or at worst scared and endangered.  These strong
reactions  then have to contained and put to work in therapeutic ways.  The
translation of these in the treatment  seems almost impossitlve much of the
time, often leads to more of the same,  and it is difficult to know for whom
one is doing it.

Many years ago I had an experience in a custodial institution in upstate NEw
York where I was planning to be for two years.  Having arrived there after a
year of incidents in Chicago, including breakins and muggings,  I who was
contitutionally angry had acquired some potent fuel and could be provoked by
sociopathic, or depressed and provocative, etc. etc. young people easily.  A
young man in his twenties was a permanent resident on our unit.  He was
paranoid s