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The Resurrection of a Magical Reality: Treatment of Functional Migraine in a Child
Author(s) -
O'CONNOR JOHN J.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
family process
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.011
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1545-5300
pISSN - 0014-7370
DOI - 10.1111/j.1545-5300.1984.00501.x
Subject(s) - migraine , psychology , psychotherapist , psychoanalysis , medicine , psychiatry
A magical world view and logic were used in the treatment of a 10‐year‐old girl who was referred because of suicidal threats due to migrainous pain. The treatment consisted of a one‐session intervention with three‐week, six‐month, and one‐year follow‐up indicating elimination of migraine. Within a strategic family therapy, a magical ritual was prescribed that derived from the preoperational logic explicated by Piaget and from the healing practices described in anthropological studies. Such a ritual casts the symptom in a different context, alters the meaning of migraine to the family system, and leads to different interactional patterns. Piaget's theory and anthropological data are discussed as sources of a magical world view to help families and children disengage from a symptomatic system of interactions.