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Peter Young, Ph.D., psychotherapist, was sued by a patient. Nancy Mackintosh had consulted himbecause she wanted to have a family, but her love relationships had always ended short of alifetime commitment because the men would become suffocatingly over-possessive. She had

liked them all as friends and as lovers, but she was unable to respond to them in somemysterious way that they said they needed her to. Dr. Young had claimed in their first session

that hers was the sort of problem for which he believed his brand of psychotherapy was especially wellsuited. He later repeated that promise on tape, but what he promised is not what happened.

As with all heavily publicized cases, the public expressed itself on the subject. The followingstatements record some of the many opinions expressed by callers to radio shows. The trial had ended, butthe publicity continued to reverberate around the country. Few people who watched the trial of Dr. Youngon TV or read about it in the newspapers understood all that happened, why the verdict was what it was, orhow the suit had been hatched by special interests. Nor did they understand the relevance of the trial to therevolution in human reproduction that would take place during their lifetimes. But I get ahead of my tale.

Man from Milwaukee:

As one who has on many occasions been the object of the irrational passions of others, I have aunique perspective on the proceedings. My opinion is that such people have succumbed to a

virtually criminal level of irrationality in which they act against their own long-term interests. I

could have written the movie Fatal Attraction in which a rejected lover takes ugly revenge. Ihave been threatened.

Man from Boston:

Being the object of loving attentions has resulted in delightful encounters. There are problems

for the weak, the empathic, or the overly moral, but if men can tolerate smothering attentions

and allow their lovers to do what they want to do for them, there can be many delightful benefits.Only take care NOT to be the one who loves. Its only being the object of passion that is

useful. After all, it is a matter of their choices and their sins. The object of anothers fixation can,

if he or she is wise, enjoy pleasure without responsibilityBut it is something I give to thewoman, not something I feel. I enjoy; she, at least temporarily, is transported to a state of

ecstasy that I can only wonder at. For me its fun; its more than that for her. The trial clarified

some things Id have preferred not be clarified.

Man from Delaware Village, Vermont:

The Young case demonstrated what I have always known: that to leave the church is to do the

bidding of the immoral antichrist. It is to walk with Satan. Put a godless man in a position of

power, and he will use it to do the Devils work. God bless.

Woman from Seattle:

The person I am calling about, who will be nameless, was lovesick. His wife had left him for

another man. He could not stop wanting her and he could not stop believing it was possible to

get her back. I could see what he was going through. It was just like in the book about Love Twothat they talked about at the trial which meant he really couldnt help how he felt. I tried to

explain to them that it was not his fault and that the man was not really crazy, just obsessed in

this one way. But the members of the church were outraged. They said I was contradicting thedoctrine of free will and individual responsibility. That was also their attitude toward the Young

Case. They said that Dr. Young chose to feel the way he did, and he chose to do what he did.

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Woman from New York:

I do not believe in this Love Two nonsense. There is no such thing as not being able to control

your own thoughts, at least not outside the nut house. They are just trying to excuse theirindulgences. Thats all I want to say.

Woman from Arlington:

I felt sorry for Dr. Young. There, but for the luck of the draw, could have gone anyone. Even

from the biased newspaper accounts, I could see the poor mans quandary. He did nothingwrong. Nancy Mackintosh wasnt the victim; Dr. Young was the victim. He was only looking out

for her interests. Certainly he was wounded by the publicity. Its not the sort of thing one wants

to expose to the world, whichever way you look at it.

Man from Alabama:

The human experience transcends what science can know. Science has no business messing with

it. Love is sacred. It is wrong to try to tamper with love. Our humanity is under threat from these

so-called scientists who carry on about Love Two.

Woman from Phoenix:

I went right out and bought the book they were talking about at the trial. It told me that I was not

alone. Maybe it is madness, but it is a normal kind of madness generally restricted to the one

aspect of life. Except that it can take over other aspects. Dr. Youngs vision got clouded.

Male from Kansas:

Those so-called Love Two stories bore me and probably other listeners too. Psychotherapy? Its

for the unbalanced. That whole case made a mountain out of a moles hill. Its nothing. Can we

please get off the Young case and get back to something important, like global warming, nuclearwaste, or international terrorism?

Woman from Maine:

My mother would spend long periods in what she called her time of quiet contemplation. She

would sit alone or she would lie on a couch or in her hammock lost to everything except whatwas going on in her mind. Mother had been dead for ten years before I understood what had

been happening. Although I had read her diary, the clippings, and the letters, I could not decodethem until the Young case woke me up. I hadnt known about the emotion or the pain, and I was

especially ignorant about the joy of it. For Mother, that man was the most important thing in life.

He was a beacon of light and a source of exquisite pain and infinite pleasure. He gave meaning

to her life, maybe a kind of meaning that others find in religion. Love Two is a powerful force.Nancy had learned to be careful, which was why she had to bring the suit against Dr. Young.

Man from Delaware:

For me, Love Two is a phony love with no redeeming features. Ive been there. She had me in

her grip; she pulled my strings and pushed my buttons. But it was all beneath the surface. Shewas unaware. It was not deliberate on her part, and I never committed the Young error. Maybe I

was too shy. It would have been too embarrassing to fail, and it was too irrational to be

revealed. I guess that, as a psychotherapist, Dr. Young had more ways to rationalize the act,more bases for convincing himself that his Love Two conception of Nancy was correct, thereby

overruling his professional judgment. At times I thought I was crazy, neurotic, or whatever silly

thing you want to call it. But the worst of it was the wasteful inanity. Some foreign, tantalizing,but ultimately evil thing had taken possession of me. It undermined my professional life and

broke up my home.

Man from Toronto:

The Young case was important to me; it showed me that even though IT was crazy, I could seethat I was not.

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Man from Florida:

Im tired of this story and Im tired of these calls about Dr. Young. Its a swindle, and someone

should be sued for wasting taxpayers money. It was the stupidest and most boring soap opera Iever heard of. The man did nothing, nothing happened, and the insurance companies won big

time.

Woman from Nebraska:

The rules are simple and obvious. Ask Shakespeare. Once struck by Cupids arrow or afterdowning the love potion, a person is transported to a new state of motivation. Young was playing

by the rules of the wrong game.

from Michelangelos Judgment