Family treatment for Psychopathic

Family treatment has attracted the interest not only of psychiatrists but also of social agencies and of the federal government, which supports research projects in this area. Play therapy is a form of psychotherapy adapted to children. Anyone who has tried to help an emotionally disturbed child knows how difficult it is to get him to talk about his problems. But often the child reveals himself, far better than he could by talking, when he plays with toys and acts out his fantasies. The therapist helps him get things out of his system, accepting him warmly as he is and guiding him toward a solution of his problems. Since these are related to the way he is treated at home, play therapy is often combined with some form of therapy (frequently, group) for the parents. Psychoanalysis, or reconstructive psychotherapy, has the most ambitious objective of any form of psychological treatment. Freud was the originator but there are now many other schools of psychoanalysis.

There are differences in the number of sessions per week, their length, and the total period of treatment. But all try to help the patient examine his thought and behavior patterns, uncover his concealed problems and wounds, and rebuild his personality structure along more healthful lines. Free association is used to help the patient bring into his conscious mind the unconscious forces that influence him. While he is with the analyst, the patient tries to speak freely of everything that comes into his mind, no matter how irrelevant or shameful it may seem. The sequence of these thoughts may reveal to the analyst the unconscious connections and help explain the source of trouble. In the course of these sessions, transference takes place. That is, the patient tends to react to the analyst in ways he reacted or still reacts to important figures in his life, usually his parents. Since the analyst is a neutral type of figure, the patient can see his own patterns of reaction. For example, a patient might be able to rationalize his fear of a neighbor by saying the neighbor is after his job or his wife. In analytic sessions, unable to find a reason for a similar fear of the analyst, he may then discover that it springs from his unconscious mind, and later may realize that it was actually a concealed fear of his father carried over from childhood.

Day after day, month after month, as the patient acts and speaks in neurotic, immature ways, the analyst helps him examine his feelings and responses. And slowly the patient becomes aware of what is and is not rational and appropriate, and why he thinks and acts irrationally. With this, he begins to think and talk in healthier fashion and, fortified by little pieces of success, becomes increasingly able, over a period of time, to function in a more mature manner. Psychoanalysis is expensive, often exhausting. But when, after years, it works welt it can be highly rewarding (though there is no guarantee of a completely successful result in all cases). Medical Therapy Since 1955, when the first two tranquilizing medicines, chlorpromazine and reserpine, were introduced in the United States mental institutions,revolutionary changes have taken place.