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Old Mar 17, 2007, 02:55 AM
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spiritual_emergency spiritual_emergency is offline
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<blockquote>
Most of Bertram Karon's articles are only available via paid subscriptions to various journals however I did find one that had a few interesting tidbits...<blockquote>

There is no such thing as a spontaneous anxiety or an endogenous depression. If a patient is anxious, there is something to be scared of. If a patient is depressed, there is something to be depressed about. If it is not in consciousness, then it is unconscious. If it is not in the present, then it is in the past and something in the present symbolizes it.

The defense mechanism of isolation is typical of severely depressed patients. They typically make no connection between their feelings and obvious experiences that would depress anyone. It is always important to ask what happened before they started feeling depressed and keep asking when they say "Nothing" or "Nothing important." The "unimportant" will turn out to make good sense of their symptoms.

Hallucinations are simply waking dreams. Get associations if you can, and use them in the therapeutic process.

If you think the patient is delusional, ask him or her to tell you about it in as great detail as possible. Do not attack or humiliate the patient or call it delusional. You never know that something is delusional just because it is improbable. If you investigate a delusion from the patient's point of view, he or she will discover its inconsistencies or even that it is delusional. Then your interpretations solve a problem for the patient.

All that we have to offer our patients is understanding, but that is far more powerful than any medication.

Source: The Effects of Medicating or Not Medicating on the Treatment Process - Dr. Bertram Karon


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