What is evident in all psychological work with women who shoplift is the desperation that arises from the instability of the discrepancy between their inner world experiences and their external world facade. Such a discrepancy leaves these women vulnerable to disappointment in self and others and subsequent exposure and disappointment of others with self. This is acted out in therapy and can become rapidly anti-therapeutic if not understood and confronted. Women who shoplift seem unaware of their inner hostility and destructiveness, and their denial of it is often sufficiently strong to survive arrest, exposure, and humiliation. The extent of the underlying psychopathology becomes clear in the therapeutic alliance, an alliance that is difficult to achieve in the face of the woman's hostility to and contemptuous envy of nurture and empathy. With these women, there must be a possibility of the false self turning and discovering that there is no true self to protect. This is why it is so important to work through the anti-therapeutic phase of therapy as soon as possible and establish some form of alliance if allowed. Even experienced therapists may need supervision to contend with the powerful countertransference issues involved in this work.