Abstract
This paper describes a number of observations made by the medical staff of this hospital in its dealings with the relatives of our patients subjected to an intensive psycho-therapeutic program.
Our frame of reference has been the recognition of mental illness as a totalized process, involving the family as a psycho-social unit. Hospitalization of one family member is observed to provoke in relatives a number of reactions which can be summarized as anxiety, and defensive operations against such anxiety. The latter characteristically create the various problems a therapist encounters and must solve in order to insure that the relatives’ participation in the treatment program will prove beneficial rather than detrimental to the patient.
The importance, particularly with psychotic patients, of having repeated therapist-relative contacts has been stressed. We have found them beneficial to the patient's effective treatment.
We believe that only limited goals may be sought in working with relatives since lasting attitudinal and behavioral changes are not common, although certain limited modifications along these lines may be achieved.
The paper, further, reviews some of the known sources of anxiety in the relatives of hospitalized psychiatric patients.
A number of troublesome defensive operations against anxiety have been illustrated with case material.
While we appreciate that this report constitutes a very modest contribution to an understanding of the relatives of psychiatric patients, we do hope that it will stimulate further investigation of this important topic.