Associations between psychiatric patients' self-image, staff feelings towards them, and treatment outcome

Interpersonal theory, as well as relational models of psychoanalytic and cognitive therapy, posits the importance for positive treatment outcome of the therapist's becoming emotionally involved in the patient's interpersonal patterns. Using the same data as in this study, we have previously found associations between psychiatric patients' self-image and the staff's feelings towards them, and differential associations between staff feelings and outcome for different diagnostic groups. The purpose of the present study was to analyze potential connections between patients' self-image, staff feelings, and outcome. Twice a year, staff at small psychiatric units reported their feelings towards 63 psychotic and 21 borderline patients who had rated their self-image at the beginning of the treatment using the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (SASB) introject and parent images. Feelings reported on the two first occasions at the beginning of the treatment were used. Outcome was assessed after 5 years. Correlation analyses found different associations between patient self-image and staff feelings for patients with favorable and less favorable outcome. The results indicated for psychotic patients associations between positive outcome and less distant staff feelings connected with the patient's freedom-giving introject, less unfree staff feelings connected with a negative image of mother and less positive feelings connected with a positive image of father. For the borderline patients, positive outcome was associated with the fact that a negative image of mother did not evoke helpful staff feelings, a positive image of the patient himself or herself did not evoke helpful staff feelings and a controlling image of father-evoked distant feelings.