Interpersonal reconstructive therapy

AIM: To evaluate the sexual functioning of breast cancer patients post mastectomy and its association with their quality of life, the personal characteristics of women and their partners, breast reconstruction, cancer staging and adjuvant therapies. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out in a University hospital located in the SouthEast of Brazil. A total of 100 women were included in the study. The parameters evaluated were sexual functioning, which was assessed based on the Sexual Quotient - Female Version (SQ-F), quality of life (QoL), evaluated by the Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Short Form (SF-36), cancer staging, breast reconstruction, adjuvant therapies and the personal characteristics of patients (age, years of study and years of marriage) and their partners (age, years of study)...

OBJECTIVE: A qualitative study using a phenomenological approach, to explore stroke survivors' needs and their perceptions of whether a community stroke scheme met these needs. METHODS: Semi-structured in-depth interviews of 12 stroke survivors, purposively selected from participants attending a new community stroke scheme. Interpretative phenomenological analysis of interviews by two researchers independently. RESULTS: Participants attending the community stroke scheme sought to reconstruct their lives in the aftermath of their stroke...

The relationship between 'narrative' and 'historical-biographical truth' in psychoanalytic treatment has become the subject of many controversial debates in recent years. Findings of contemporary memory research have lead to great scepticism as to whether therapists are able objectively and reliably to reconstruct biographical events on the basis of their observations in the therapeutic situation. Some authors even claim that psychoanalysts should concentrate exclusively on observing the here and now of the patient's behaviour within the transference relationship to the analyst...

This case study involves a set of transcripts of Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) sessions from the Christchurch Psychotherapy for Depression Study. The case study explores the techniques employed by the therapist for a depressed patient who has identified interpersonal disputes as the interpersonal area to focus on. The psychotherapeutic interventions utilized by the IPT therapist included: seeking information; exploring parallels in other relationships; exploring relationship patterns; exploring communication patterns; signalling what is significant; providing support, exploring affect; exploring options; problem-solving; drawing analogy; and challenging...

The paper analyses the adverse impact of the hormonal therapy's side-effects on advanced prostate cancer patients' capacity for maintaining their pre-treatment spousal relationships, the pros and cons of their ways of coping with the difficulties involved, and the implications of these issues for oncology nursing interventions. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 Israeli prostate cancer patients, and the data were processed according to the constant comparative analysis method. The findings show that partners' supportive attitude and patients' attempts to stage resilience led to pre-treatment relationships' maintenance, and that, accordingly, patients' rejection by their partners and resignation to this difficulty resulted in spousal ties' disruption...

Can we say the magic word "cured", "cancer free" for breast cancer patients or can we say only survivors? This litterature review was focused on what mean cured of breast cancer with the long term effects on quality of life of locoregional and systemic therapies and the role of breast reconstruction. Finally changes in the intimacy, sex and love live and psychosocial live were stressed.

Bites are serious injuries that constitute 1 percent of all emergency-department visits in the United States of America. Human bite injuries may lead to loss of function, infection, and gross disfigurement, and often are associated with interpersonal and sexual violence, and child abuse. Issues with infection from oral contaminants, tissue damage, and difficult surgical reconstruction make the management of human bite injuries a challenge. The unique nature of teeth and the bite marks they produce are invaluable in forensic pathology...

Qualitative accounts suggest that social difficulties are a major source of psychological disturbance to disfigured people. However, there have been few systematic investigations of their psychological and social difficulties, and those which do exist are usually small studies with methodological difficulties. Social skills training and cognitive-behavioural therapy are promising interventions, particularly if it can be demonstrated that anxiety is a major element of the psychological difficulties experienced by disfigured people...

Widespread changes in the criteria and resources for psychiatric inpatient treatment of adolescents present enormous challenges and demand serious and far-reaching adaptive efforts. Among these efforts may be a redesigning of the inpatient treatment milieu to accommodate different patient populations for whom different models of treatment and therapeutic strategies are necessary. This paper describes the redesigning and successful integration of an adolescent inpatient unit at a private psychiatric hospital to include separate treatment tracks for three different patient populations...

In modern view, the transference process is both repetition and change. To grasp specific relationship patterns systematically different content-analytical methods are used in the context of singles case studies. FRAMES, BIP (PERT) and CCRT, as demonstrated in the foregoing articles by Hölzer, Herold, Deserno et al. place various accents: expressed emotions, interpersonal experience, and the central relational conflict. They do not lead only to a concentrated reconstruction of the respective situational dynamics obtained according to known rules; they also seem to be able to confirm the clinical experience that repetition and change meet in the patient-analyst relationship...

The diagnosis of breast cancer causes severe psychological conflicts. This is because of the sudden need for a mutilating breast operation and because of the threatening confrontation with a potentially lethal disease. The consequence can be a spectrum of physical and mental sequelae, access to which the physician may find difficult. Here, the interpersonal relationship between the patient and the operating surgeon is of particular relevance, not only for the hospital phase but also in the time to follow. These effects therefore fall into the sector of psychosocial care...

A small but concerning percentage of completed suicides are seen as having left no clues. The classical case, albeit a literary one, is Robinson's Richard Cory. These people often dissemble, even about their suicide risk. An even smaller group of these individuals present themselves in therapy without communicating a sign of suicide risk. Utilizing an idiographic approach, the case of a young adult male (Rick) is presented. The narrative reconstruction gives voice behind the man's mask. The autopsy reveals a young man who was in deep pain and unable to adjust to life's demands...

A 65-year-old man, having undergone a penectomy operation that spared the ejaculatory apparatus and some erotically responsive areas, experienced a spontaneous orgasm, with ejaculation, upon being touched in the perineal area during a massage. Unable to duplicate the experience, he (and later his wife) entered sex therapy, which resulted in his being able to have orgasms during lovemaking. The course of the therapy is described, as are certain issues arising from the therapy. Regaining of the man's orgasmic ability was accompanied by a striking improvement in the intrapsychic and interpersonal functioning of the couple, and this is taken to be an example of the "ripple effect" of successful sex therapy...

After a presentation of bowlby's attachment theory and ethological point of view, the authors have suggested that the sequence of symbiosis and separation-individuation, described by Mahler, may be integrated within this frame of reference. The root of psychopathology is considered to be a complex structure, termed bad symbiosis, in which the dual unsatisfied basic needs of the mother interact with those of the child. Clinical illustrations of this structure, as well as of its wider context, the family symbiosis, have been provided...

The goal of sexual rehabilitation is to restore the patient's ability to engage in intimate interpersonal relationships. It incorporates the restoration of both self-esteem and bodily function. When appropriate and desired, sexual rehabilitation includes restoring the physical ability to engage in sexual activity. Rehabilitation begins at diagnosis and continues throughout therapy. It addresses the specific desires of each patient and incorporates the contributions of every member of a health care team. An adaptation of Annon's PLISSIT model is appropriate to this multidisciplinary, holistic approach...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

In an investigation of psychosocial strain in persons having a facial or skin impairment, a total of 25 patients of Fachklinik Hornheide (a special clinic for the treatment of tumors, tuberculosis, and for facial and skin reconstruction) had participated in in-depth interviewing. It was found with unexpected clarity that these clients are exposed to a high measure of negative environmental reaction. In addition to having to cope with stressful disease consequences, often entailing a "loss of face" with the major problems of self-worth this involves, these negative experiences in many instances lead to behavioural problems, withdrawal reaction, occupational repercussions, or severe emotional crisis in those concerned...

Verbal thought occupies a preeminent place in psychoanalytic theory and practice. The patient keeps out of conscious awareness, ultimately, what is unrepresentable, therefore unthinkable. The analyst helps the patient find ways to think about the unthinkable, both to reconstruct the past and free himself from it. The patient's role in this process involves a challenge comparable to the analyst's, in balancing and shifting between free association and objectifying thought. His capacity to progressively adapt his thinking and language to meet these therapeutic needs is a sensitive indicator that the narcissistic disturbance is healing...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

A formulation of agoraphobia is presented in personal construct theory terms. It is hypothesized that the construing of agoraphobics and their spouses is characterized by low cognitive awareness of constructs concerning interpersonal conflict and lack of tenderness; by dilemmas in which the ability to go out implies possible infidelity; and by low self-esteem in the agoraphobic and high self-esteem in their spouse. Evidence in support of these hypotheses is provided by a repertory grid study comparing agoraphobics, non-agoraphobic neurotics, spouses of both client groups, and normal subjects...