P02-203 - The contribution of psychoanalytic self psychology to the treatment of patients with severe mental health disorders in psychiatric communities

Abstract

Psychiatric communities represent in Europe a consistent part of psychiatric mental health services. In spite of this, studies which investigate the therapeutic processes which take place in such specific setting are still lacking. This paper is an attempt to contribute to fill this gap, describing how the main principles of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology could help mental health workers of different professional backgrounds to integrate their roles, actions and rehabilitative and therapeutic affords with the view of offering a cohesive and personalized treatment to their patients. It will be discuss how the concepts of “understanding and making the patient feeling understood” constitute a basic ingredient, particularly in the early stages of treatment, for allowing the therapeutic alliance to develop. It will be explained how the recognition and the working through of the often archaic and intense self object transfers, which develop towards specific workers or towards the community as a whole, are an important tool for comprehend and making sense of the patients’ behavior, enabling the team to withstand the challenges posed by difficult clients and utilizing such circumstances as a therapeutic opportunity. It will be considered the role of relatives and significant others in regulating the mental states of the patients and also the role of inter-patients relationships as a potentially useful instrument to enhance mentalization among guests. It will be discussed the importance of creating a cohesion among the members of the multidisciplinary team, through the facilitation of an atmosphere of dialogue, openness and reciprocal listening and understanding.