The Fantasy Bond

Over the comings weeks, I intend to post on the topic of Bob's self-published book The Fantasy Bond. As with his book The Ethics of Interpersonal Relationships, I won't be commenting on the psychological concepts. Rather, I'll be pointing out the many misrepresentations pertaining to The Environment (aka The Friendship Circle) and also the bits and pieces that support things I've written in this blog. 

Chapter 20 is titled The Psychotheraputic Community. (This is a precursor to the same writeup presented in the subsequent Ethics book.) I'm particularly amused by this piece of fiction:

The author, an original member of the friendship circle, was persuaded in time to leave a large psychotherapy practice to involve himself in this project on a full-time basis. Because of my innate interest and ongoing study of resistance in psychotherapy, and the desire to pursue this subject in a social context, I was pleased to avail myself of the opportunity.

The notion that Bob was "persuaded" is the comical part. But as to abandoning his practice, that didn't happen until The Environment was in full swing. He had two motivations:

1. Bob knew full well that he was crossing bright red lines in terms of ethical/moral behavior for a psychotherapist. He was fearful of repercussions. This is the main reason he shut down his public practice. Bob spoke about this openly in group on multiple occasions.
2. While Bob was affluent, he wasn't yet wealthy. The businesses started by his patients (over which he assumed control) had yet to emerge. However the income from his practice had been supplanted by income from within the group. Every adult in the group paid Bob for therapy. Cash and only cash. He was making a lot of money. I know this because I had visibility into the details of his personal finances as a result of helping him automate. (Not to mention, most members of the group started out as patients in Bob's private practice. There wasn't much private practice remaining once The Environment was formed.)

The notion that Bob was merely a "member" of The Frienship Circle is highly misleading. The group consisted of his patients (in addition to various friends). He was the leader; he made it happen. 

It's also amusing how he describes his practice as "large", helping to fill in the Saint Bob narrative. See Bob/Trump comparison.