Carla is a twenty-five-years-old young woman with pensive and penetrating eyes. She looks dynamic and intelligent. She has come to see me unwillingly, pushed by her mother. Their relationship, she tells me, is (and always has been)a very conflictual one. Her mother "accuses" her of being constantly distracted, careless and inefficient both in life and at work; she also reproaches her for being extremely oppositional and for making life impossible for everyone in the family with her constant outbursts. Carla, with a ferocious tone, claims that, on the contrary, it is her mother who makes life impossible for her. This is, she goes on, the source of the incessant clashes plaguing their family life. Her father seems to be a helpless witness to all this. He is described as a tiny, inconsistent man completely absorbed by his job. Carla describes this situation with sadness. Hers, however, is a sadness full of impatience and dull anger. Such impatience and resentment emerge with particular harshness as soon as the subject shifts from a general description of her family situation to her own problems and her request for consultation. When I start inquiring about the reasons that lead her to me (for consultation) she immediately takes on an air of challenge: C. "I thought you were supposed to tell me that. I had no reason to come here! I have really nothing to say!" (the tone is very provocative and grumpy. I sense a very bad mood) T. (Surprised) "If you have nothing to say, well... neither do I... But I guess if you came here you must have done so for some reason". C. "Of course! But I thought you were the one asking the questions ... I don't feel like talking about all these things ... I have nothing to say. Besides, it took me one hour to find parking! I also live on the other side of town ... Plus, psychologists and psychiatrists do not understand a damn thing .... They are just 'shrinks' who don't really care about people!". She goes on with the same tone, pouring innumerable insults on the whole professional category...When I ask her if she is often in such a bad mood she replies that yes, it happens often, both when she is with her family and at work. Carla works for a pharmaceutical company and is responsible for quality control of the work of the other employees. "Not an easy situation", I remark, assuming that, having to evaluate the work of other people, she must often find herself in a difficult position due to recurring criticism and recriminations. Mine, I thought, was just a trivial observation. Carla did not think so. She reacts with an explosion of anger and discontent: C. "Here we go again!! You talk in clichés too! What you say is what everyone thinks. But it is absolutely false! What do people know? I'm not just another bitch!" -and so on.
