Headlock: psychotherapy of a patient with multiple neurological and psychiatric problems

Psychodynamic psychiatrists seldom engage in psychotherapy with brain-injured patients because psychodynamic treatment typically depends on the patient's highly developed verbal skills, reflectiveness, tolerance of frustration, and capacity for abstract thinking and generalization--characteristics impaired by brain injury. The author describes the difficult but successful extended treatment of a young adult patient with preexisting attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and personality disorders who had also abused alcohol and drugs and had suffered severe brain trauma. Treatment was characterized by a lengthy developmental process, the success of which depended on several factors, particularly the maintenance of the therapeutic alliance.