# On Not Choosing: Living More Than One Life - URL: https://alisanburak.com/en/wcp-2026-posterler/so430 - Language: en - Last updated: not specified - Page title: On Not Choosing: Living More Than One Life | WCP 2026 Summary > Leading a double life can be understood not merely as infidelity, but as a repetition of an unresolved relationship with a parent and an attempt to keep differ… This page was translated automatically from Turkish. [Read the original](https://alisanburak.com/wcp-2026-posterler/so430) This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it. SO430 Brief Oral Poster PresentationPsychotherapyCase report (psychodynamic single-case study) # On Not Choosing: Living More Than One Life ON NOT CHOOSING: LIVING MORE THAN ONE LIFE Presenter: Arun Subramaniam Country: Australia Session: 4520 - PARALLEL SHORT ORAL POSTER SESSIONS: PSYCHOTHERAPY Date: Sat, 26.09.2026 Leading a double life can be understood not merely as infidelity, but as a repetition of an unresolved relationship with a parent and an attempt to keep different parts of the self alive. This case aims to explore the emotional and unconscious meanings of leading a double life in a patient who has a long-term affair despite describing her marriage as loving and secure. The method is a psychodynamic single-case study; the formulation draws on psychoanalytic concepts such as repetition, splitting, identification, and transference/countertransference, as well as Adam Phillips's concept of the unlived life; the poster states that the material has been de-identified. In the clinical context, the 35-year-old female patient is distressed by her relationship with a considerably older man, which evokes intense longing and difficulty separating. Prominent developmental themes include an emotionally unavailable, demanding, and difficult-to-read father figure whose intermittent affection was nevertheless deeply soothing; the father's move abroad and the subsequent discovery that he had another family; and persistent longing, feelings of exclusion, and a wish to be valued. The relational formulation notes that the lover increasingly resembles the father in his speech, manner, and emotional availability; that a cycle of longing, uncertainty, testing, a desire to be chosen, and fear of loss is at work; and that the patient's own double life echoes her father's. The working hypothesis involves repetition, identification, and an attempt at retrospective reparation, organized around the positions of an abandoned daughter seeking an unavailable father and a father leading a divided life. During the therapeutic process, a four-day mismatch between the psychiatrist's leave and the patient's planned discharge was addressed as an enactment. The patient's wish to leave the decision to the psychiatrist was declined, and she chose to be discharged as planned; sadness, hopelessness, sympathy, and frustration emerged in the countertransference. The clinical implication is that insight alone does not bring resolution, and that therapy offers a space in which the dynamics of repetition can be recognized and the capacity to choose gradually reclaimed. Note: the poster narrative identifies the parent who leads a double life and has another family as the father; the congress abstract identifies this figure as the mother. The poster has been used as the basis here. [View the original poster](https://cslide.ctimeetingtech.com/wcp26/attendee/eposter/file/1592) How to cite this study APA 7: Subramaniam, A., et al. (2026, September 26). On not choosing: living more than one life [Poster presentation]. 26th WPA World Congress of Psychiatry (WCP 2026), Stockholm, Sweden. https://cslide.ctimeetingtech.com/wcp26/attendee/eposter/file/1592 Vancouver: Subramaniam A, et al. On not choosing: living more than one life [poster]. 26th WPA World Congress of Psychiatry (WCP 2026); 2026 Sep 23-26; Stockholm, Sweden. Available from: https://cslide.ctimeetingtech.com/wcp26/attendee/eposter/file/1592 Author names and title formatting were generated automatically from the congress system; please check them against the original poster before use. ## On the same topic - [Bağımlılığa veda mektubu: madde kullanım bozukluğu tedavisinde eksik parça](https://alisanburak.com/en/wcp-2026-posterler/ev0051) - [Hemşirelik stajyerlerinde katarsis programının algılanan stres üzerindeki etkisi: girişimsel bir çalışma](https://alisanburak.com/en/wcp-2026-posterler/ev0112) - [Sınav kaygısı odaklı bilişsel davranışçı terapi el kitabının lise kız öğrencilerinde incelenmesi](https://alisanburak.com/en/wcp-2026-posterler/ev0116) - [Sosyal anksiyete bozukluğunda BDT sonucunun yordayıcıları olarak öngörü hatası ve beklentiler](https://alisanburak.com/en/wcp-2026-posterler/ev0117) - [Kabul ve kararlılık terapisinin öğrencilerin algılanan stresi ve sınav kaygısı üzerindeki etkisi](https://alisanburak.com/en/wcp-2026-posterler/ev0118) [All WCP 2026 summaries](https://alisanburak.com/en/wcp-2026-posterler) --- Kaynak / Source: https://alisanburak.com/en/wcp-2026-posterler/so430 İletişim / Contact: Bağdat Caddesi, Veli Güneysu Apt. 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