Headlock: psychotherapy of a patient with multiple neurological and psychiatric problems.
Psychodynamic psychiatrists seldom engage in psychotherapy with brain-injured patients because psychodynamic treatment typically depends on the patient's highly developed verbal skills, reflectiveness, tolerance of frustration, and capacity for abstract thinking and generalization--characteristics impaired by brain injury. The author describes the difficult but successful extended treatment of a young adult patient with preexisting attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and personality disorders who had also abused alcohol and drugs and had suffered severe brain trauma. Treatment was characterized by a lengthy developmental process, the success of which depended on several factors, particularly the maintenance of the therapeutic alliance.
Buskirk
J R
JR
C.F. Menninger Memorial Hospital, Topeka, Kansas.
D000328:Adult; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008134:Long-Term Care; D008297:Male; D010553:Personality Development; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D012649:Self Concept; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*