Group therapy for pathological love

Abstract

2In this model, the Mania love style corresponds to PL, which is experienced as an obsessive emotion that dominates the individual, who feels forced to continually attract the partner’s attention. We selected through media advertisement 8 individuals that felt that their way of loving made them suffer. The intervention proposed was based on psychodramatic analysis. Psychodrama group therapy is an effective approach for the enhancement of interpersonal relationships by promoting psychological insight, helping self-esteem improvement, and consequently, contributing to the development of healthier relationships. 3 Intervention comprised 18 consecutive weekly sessions summarized on Table 1. Mean age of the participants was 41.5 years (SD = 9.75), the majority were women, currently divorced or sin gle. Psychiatry comorbidity was accessed by the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) 4 and major depression was the most frequent diagnosis (n = 5). Participants answered a 6-point Likert-type analogue scale assessing dependency on the relationship that motivated treatmentseeking (higher scores meaning a healthier relationship). Scoring on this Love Health Scale (LHS), varying from 0 to 100, is initially defined by the patient who shares with the group her/his reasons for such self-score. Then, a final score is defined through interactions and suggestions by other group members, having the therapists as the impartial facilitators of the scoring process. The Love Attitudes Scale (LAS) 5