Medico-psychological approach to families with chronic patients
Kornblit, A.; Wasertreguer, S.
Acta Psiquiatrica y Psicologica de America Latina 29(1): 67-71
1983
ISSN/ISBN: 0001-6896 PMID: 6680562 Document Number: 213065
In this paper, a clinical psychological approach to families with a diabetic patient, extensive to other chronic conditions, is described. The main purpose is to act on the emotional factors that the disease produces in the family as a system and that interfere in the therapeutic success. To operate two areas are proposed: a) Cognitive, trying to know and make clear any distorted information the family may have about the disease, with special emphasis on non-critical believes. To make conscious these primitive myths constitutes a valuable tool leading to their questioning and eventual correction, and consequently improving the family behavior related to the control of the disease. b) Family dynamics. Diabetes, as other chronic diseases, facilitates the broadening of the pre-existing dependency links. Furthermore, if the organic disease constitutes a sort of limit not seen in psychiatric disorders, the load on the patient of other conflicts can be understood as the rol played by the "identified patient" as mentally ill. The individual "marked" with an organic disease is an adequate target to receive multiple deposits from unsolved family system conflicts expressed through many disfunctional interactions, being "enmeshment" of everyone to everyone and "overprotection" characteristic features.