Premium
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy for Persons in States of Psychosis: Some Research Perspectives
Author(s) -
Rosenbaum Bent
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
british journal of psychotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.442
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1752-0118
pISSN - 0265-9883
DOI - 10.1111/bjp.12187
Subject(s) - psychodynamics , psychology , psychotherapist , psychodynamic psychotherapy , danish , psychosis , psychiatry , linguistics , philosophy
This paper describes some basic problems and assumptions in supportive psychodynamic psychotherapy with persons in states of psychosis. It starts out by addressing changes in the views of science – from the case study method to the evidence‐based medicine paradigm – and continues with a discussion of the necessity for psychotherapy integration and conceptual clarification in delineating psychodynamic psychotherapy in the field of psychosis. Over a period of decades a small number of comparative studies have been conducted in which psychodynamic psychotherapy of patients with schizophrenia has been compared with treatment as usual. The latest of these, a Danish prospective multicentre study, is described. Some basic arguments for calling this study ‘psychodynamic’ and ‘supportive’ are outlined, and a few overall aims are described, including the desired abilities of the therapists in this particular field. Even though the use of randomized controlled trials, scientifically, is a difficult paradigm for psychodynamic psychotherapy, studies like the Danish one support the use of psychodynamic treatment in the National Health Service.