Boundary Violations and the Abuse of Power: Commentary on Paper by Philip Kuhn

Kuhn describes a sordid event in the life of Ernest Jones. Although the episode involves a school setting rather than a psychoanalytic process, the incident has remarkable similarities to the boundary violations so prevalent in the early history of psychoanalysis. A detailed examination of the institutional response to the allegations illuminates our persistent wish to deny abuses of power, the pervasiveness of corruption in our analytic parents, and the misuses of sexual desire in our midst.