Premium
Expressive and Defensive Behavior during Discourse on Unresolved Topics: A Single Case Study of Pathological Grief
Author(s) -
Horowitz Mardi J.,
Milbrath Constance,
Jordan Daniel S.,
Stinson Charles H.,
Ewert Mary,
Redington Dana J.,
Fridhandler Bram,
Reidbord Stephen P.,
Hartley Dianna
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
journal of personality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.082
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1467-6494
pISSN - 0022-3506
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6494.1994.tb00308.x
Subject(s) - grief , psychology , pathological , psychoanalysis , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , social psychology , psychotherapist , medicine , pathology
Both psychodynamic and social‐cognitive theoretical domains have control process models of behavior but with different ideas about the purpose and loci of control. This study examines expressive and defensive behaviors associated with different topics of discourse in the time‐limited psychotherapy of a woman treated for pathological grief. Conceptually the study is based on a model of defensive control processes that integrates states of mind and person schemas. Theoretically derived measures of discourse topics, verbal and nonverbal defensive behaviors, emotional disclosure, and states of mind were applied to transcripts and videotapes of the entire therapy. Evidence from combined cluster and factor analyses supported the existence of recurring emotionally significant states. Two of these are particularly interesting from a clinical perspective: One, a “shimmering” state of intense emotional expression with concurrent signs of avoidance, was associated with topics identified clinically as stressful, unresolved, and conflictual. The other, a state of more uniformly stifled emotionality, was characteristic of discourse thought of clinically as resistance.