engleski

CHANGES IN OBJECT RELATIONS IN THE LONG-TERM PSYCHODYNAMIC GROUP PSYCHOTERAPY OF YOUNG PSYCHOTIC PATIENTS

It is well known that psychotic patients suffer from severe disturbances of interpersonal relations which limit their capacity for communication, intimacy and participation in the social matrix (Schermer i Pines, 1999). In interpersonal relationships they manifest strong dependency, fear of regression, self-annihilation, possible loss of control and boundaries, distrust and fear of abandonment as a result of resurfacing of incapsulated bad object (Klein, 1977). One of the key goals of psychodynamic group psychotherapy with psychotic patients is to achieve greater maturity and integration of internal structures, the separation of the self from the object and the restructuring of primitive defense mechanisms. The aim of this study was to determinate the influence of group psychodynamic psychotherapy on the dimensions of the object relations. The patients that we have studied were suffering from psychotic disorders and they were included in group psychodynamic psychotherapy within the frame of “First episode intervention Program for psychotic patients” in Psychiatric Hospital “Sveti Ivan”, Zagreb. They filled in the Test of object relations (Žvelc, 2000) which measures six dimensions of interpersonal relations: symbiotic merging, separation anxiety, narcissism, egocentricity, fear of engulfment and social isolation. The results that after two and a half year of participation in a group psychodynamic psychotherapy demonstrated reduction in all dimesions, meanwhile in the dimension of symbiotic merging decrease was statistically significant.

group psychodynamic psychotherapy; psychotic patients

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