This study sought to investigate whether the modern
analytic techniques developed by Spotnitz (1968) and colleagues can be
successfully used in the relatively short-term treatment of men and
women of advanced age in a nursing home environment.
The techniques Spotnitz employed, originally with
schizophrenic patients, were soon found to be applicable to all patients
suffering from pre-Oedipal disorders -- interruptions in the unfolding
of their maturational processes that were the result of pre-verbal
conflicts in their early emotional environment.
These interruptions, he found, have life-long effects unless they
are addressed therapeutically.
The criteria for success was the resolution
of the patients’ resistances to verbalizing a wider range of feelings
than previously possible, and clear behavioral changes that signaled the
individual’s wish to be an active participant in the life of the
nursing home community.
The data presented details the treatment of
four patients in terms of their presenting problems, the transference
feelings they brought to the treatment process, the
therapist/researcher’s countertransference feelings that were used to
shape the resistance-resolving interventions; and finally, the
behavioral change in the patient that resulted from those interventions.
