Known object loss, disturbance in reality testing, and “ee-grief work” as a method of brief psychotherapy

Summary

Traditionally psychiatry and its teaching regarding psychotherapeutic technique have centered around the classical aspects of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytically oriented long-term psychotherapy. The authors' observation of hospitalized patients has led them to believe that there is a definite need for the development of short-term techniques in psychotherapy. In the particular therapeutic technique discussed in this paper an effort is made to consider the need for short-term techniques predicated upon psychoanalytic hypothesis, although differing widely from the practice of long-term psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy.

The method described in this paper utilizes as its cornerstone focalization upon a specific aspect of the patient's history, namely the loss of an object to which the patient had developed significant libidinal and aggressive attachments. The paper develops a concept of “re-grief work”, which is a method of short-term psychotherapy in which a patient suffering from a delayed or pathological grief reaction may be assisted in experiencing a satisfactory grief reaction somewhat later in time than would be expected in the normal course of grief work.

The authors' investigations in this area are only beginning but it was felt that reporting of this initial work might stimulate the interest of other investigators in this area, aid in the elucidation of all the forces that may be at work in this particular type of therapeutic endeavor, and finally result in the refinement of the therapeutic technique herein described.