Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 26, 2026

Using Visual and Narrative Methods to Achieve Fair Process in Clinical Care
Published on: February 16, 2011
Relationships, reality, and reciprocity with therapeutic environments: a historical case study
1University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Philadelphia 19104, USA. dantonio@nursing.upenn.edu
Abstract:
This historical case study considers the reciprocity between interpersonal relationships and the immediate, structural, and demand-laden therapeutic environment in which they occur. This study draws its data from the daily diaries kept between 1814 and 1840 by the lay superintendents of the Friends Asylum for the Insane in Philadelphia. The demands of a therapeutic environment for stability and productivity, in addition to demands for safety and healing, fundamentally altered the nature of the individual relationships between patients and staff. Therefore, current practitioners must not assume the stability of their later 20th century formulations about therapeutic relationships. Rather, they must perform a careful calculus of risks and rewards as they consider the intersection of relationships, reality, and therapeutic environments.
Related Concept Videos
Psychodynamic Therapy
Elements Crucial for Effective Psychotherapy
The Therapeutic Alliance
The therapeutic alliance refers to the relationship between the therapist and the client. The alliance strengthens when the therapist and the client engage in a nurturing, supportive, trusting, empathetic, and respectful relationship, improving therapeutic outcomes. Therapists must monitor this relationship...
Modeling in Therapy
Participant Modeling
Participant modeling involves therapists demonstrating calm and effective behaviors in situations...
Humanistic Therapy
Techniques of therapeutic communication I: Active Listening, Sharing Observations, Validation, and Using Touch
Therapeutic communication is not the same as social interaction. Social interaction has no goal or purpose and consists of casual information sharing, whereas therapeutic communication has a plan or purpose for the conversation. Therapeutic...
Interpersonal Psychotherapy