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Therapy with eight schizophrenic and borderline patients: Summary of a therapy approach that employs a semi‐symbiotic bond between patient and therapist
Author(s) -
Scagnelli Joan
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/1097-4679(197507)31:3<519::aid-jclp2270310334>3.0.co;2-3
Subject(s) - psychology , distancing , psychotherapist , feeling , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , expression (computer science) , ambivalence , consistency (knowledge bases) , closeness , social psychology , psychiatry , medicine , mathematical analysis , geometry , mathematics , disease , pathology , covid-19 , computer science , infectious disease (medical specialty) , programming language
In conclusion, it appears to this therapist that working through a semi-symbiotic union is a useful and perhaps essential therapy technique with both schizophrenic and borderline patients. The essential ingredients of this technique include: (1) open expression of feelings by the therapist; (2) consistency and reliability by the therapist; (3) understanding and acceptance of schizophrenic jargon; (4) acceptance of the patient's ambivalent feelings about closeness and distance and allowing distancing tactics; (5) interpreting and working through distancing needs as an on-going process -- understanding that they generally indicate both fear of rejection and of incorporation; (6) acceptance of a long-term semi-symbiotic responsibility to the patient; (7) expression of the therapist's own legitimate limits and of his inability to meet all the patient's needs; (8) allowing and encouraging the patient the freedom to grow toward increasing independence with security.