[Psychodynamic aspects of coping with illness in stroke--experiences with a psychotherapy group]

The authors describe their experience of a group--psychotherapy with stroke patients during the phase of inpatient neurological rehabilitation. The process of coping in stroke patients shows similarities with grief reactions following the loss of important objects. But it is usually complicated by the fact that the physical injury is experienced as a narcissistic trauma resulting in low self--esteem and in feelings of anger and despair. Psychotherapeutic interventions can help to deal with such negative affects and should facilitate a mourning process, which is inevitable if adaptation to a life with a physical handicap should succeed.