The Mask of Seduction: Histrionic Personality and the Illusion of Fooling the Analyst
One of the paradoxes of psychoanalysis lies in the encounter with patients who appear to “outplay” the analytic setting. Among these, individuals with histrionic personality traits are often described as masterful in adopting masks, performing roles, and “conning” those around them—including their therapists. But what does it mean to fool the analyst? And what lies behind the mask?
The Performance of the Self
Histrionic personalities are frequently marked by theatricality, heightened emotional expressiveness, and a capacity to adapt quickly to the expectations of the other. Freud’s early writings on hysteria already drew attention to this dimension of performance and seduction in the analytic situation (Breuer & Freud, Studies on Hysteria, 1895). Later theorists, such as Otto Kernberg, described how histrionic patients rely on superficial charm and emotional dramatization to maintain a fragile sense of self (Kernberg, Borderline Conditions and Pathological Narcissism, 1975).
In this sense, the “conning” of the therapist can be understood less as a conscious deception and more as a survival strategy. The mask is not a simple lie; it is the patient’s way of existing in relation to the Other.
Fooling the Analyst—or Protecting the Self?
The fantasy of fooling the therapist often hides an underlying terror: the fear of being truly seen. Histrionic patients may oscillate between craving attention and fearing exposure. As Donald Winnicott suggested, the false self develops as a protective shell, an adaptation to early relational environments where the authentic self could not emerge safely (The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment, 1965).
Thus, the mask is both a seduction and a defense. To keep the analyst at bay, to charm and distract, is also to prevent the possibility of painful encounters with shame, emptiness, or rejection.
The Analyst’s Countertransference
Therapists often report feeling alternately captivated, entertained, and frustrated in work with histrionic patients. The “mask” can provoke countertransference reactions of admiration or irritation. As McWilliams notes, the clinician must remain aware that behind the performance lies profound vulnerability (Psychoanalytic Diagnosis, 2011). The analytic task is not to expose the deception as though it were a trick, but to attend to the deeper anxieties that necessitate the masquerade.
What Lies Behind the Mask
The question, then, is not whether the patient is “really” fooling the analyst. The analytic setting is designed precisely to hold the tension between mask and truth, performance and authenticity. The dramatization itself becomes material. As André Green observed, hysterical manifestations often reveal an “appeal to the other” that is both desperate and concealed (On Private Madness, 1986).
Behind the mask lies a longing for recognition, for a gaze that does not simply applaud the performance but understands the pain it covers. To con the therapist is, paradoxically, to seek confirmation that the self—however unstable, however fragmented—can still be seen, desired, and held within the analytic frame.
References
Breuer, J., & Freud, S. (1895). Studies on Hysteria.
Green, A. (1986). On Private Madness. London: Hogarth Press.
Kernberg, O. (1975). Borderline Conditions and Pathological Narcissism. New York: Jason Aronson.
McWilliams, N. (2011). Psychoanalytic Diagnosis: Understanding Personality Structure in the Clinical Process. 2nd ed. New York: Guilford Press.
Winnicott, D. W. (1965). The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment. London: Hogarth Press.