Like a rolling stone: Psychotherapy without (episodic) memory
People with profound amnesia still retain the capacity to learn about the emotional value of experiences, which is crucial in developing and sustaining interpersonal relationships. In a 2017 paper, we demonstrated for the first time (with patient JL) that transferential feelings develop across the t...
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Published in | Frontiers in psychiatry Vol. 13; p. 958194 |
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Main Authors | , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Frontiers Media S.A
02.11.2022
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | People with profound amnesia still retain the capacity to learn about the
emotional
value of experiences, which is crucial in developing and sustaining interpersonal relationships. In a 2017 paper, we demonstrated for the first time (with patient JL) that transferential feelings develop
across
the therapeutic process, despite profound episodic memory impairment after medial temporal lesions. This paper reports a second case (GA) of a profoundly amnesic patient in psychotherapy, this time after lesions to the anterior fornix. The work with GA opens issues such as the differences and similarities to the previous case, counter-transference phenomena, and the effects of hyperphagia. The findings make it clear that many phenomena are common to both GA and JL, such as forgetfulness, various types of repetition, the importance of the therapeutic alliance, and the ability to make therapeutic gain. However, there were differences between the cases, for example as regards confabulation, which may relate to either pre-morbid personality or lesion site. The paper also discusses the way in which patients of this type bear the very
status
of psychotherapeutic work with profoundly amnesic patients. Where others have seen barriers and
in principle
problems in working with such patients, we see many opportunities. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Edited by: Emanuel Jauk, Medical University of Graz, Austria This article was submitted to Psychological Therapy and Psychosomatics, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry Reviewed by: Andrea Scalabrini, University of Bergamo, Italy; William Barbosa Gomes, Federal University of Rio Grande Do Sul, Brazil |
ISSN: | 1664-0640 1664-0640 |
DOI: | 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.958194 |