Witnessing the Gap: Clinical Presence in the Face of Therapeutic Rupture
10/17/2025
Dr. Simone Drichel's reimagining of gaps as ethically necessary spaces that preserve otherness offers profound implications for clinical practice. This panel explores how "proximity with infinite separation" translates into the consulting room during therapeutic impasses. Drawing from clinical vignettes, we will examine how the impulse to "repair" gaps may inadvertently collapse patients' alterity. When clinicians rush to bridge understanding, they risk abandoning patients to face their essential aloneness without witness. We will explore different ways to "endure the ethical gap": how therapeutic presence differs from understanding; how therapeutic failures may preserve otherness rather than represent mistakes; and how remaining vulnerably present within gaps creates authentic encounter. Through case material, this panel demonstrates the shift from empathy as bridge-building to empathy as witnessing— staying present with patients' irreducible difference while resisting premature understanding. Following all three clinical presentations, Dr. Drichel will join for roundtable discussion integrating clinical perspectives with her theoretical framework.
