Self-Inflicted Blindness: Outline of a Rehabilitation Program

Abstract

This paper describes a rehabilitation program carried out over sixteen months with a twenty-five year old male with schizophrenia and self-inflicted blindness. The overall goal of treatment was for the patient to acquire skills that would enable him to lead as independent a life as possible. Initially this included acceptance of his blindness, increasing his awareness of his environment, developing skills to cope with activities of daily living and subsequent development of social and occupational skills. The psychosis and its residuum presented limiting factors leading to slow progress. The rarity of self-inflicted blindness, the prominence of occupational therapy skills in the rehabilitation program and the lack of guidelines in the literature make this case of particular interest.