Psychotherapy of patients with serious intercurrent medical illness (cancer)

Exploratory psychotherapy of patients with chronic intercurrent illness has received little attention by psychoanalysts. A young woman with life-long characterologic problems presented herself for analytic psychotherapy shortly after surgery and radiotherapy for a malignancy. The debility of her illness facilitated a slowdown in an action-prone patient and permitted the necessary introspection and regression. willing One finds in these patients a readiness to reorder priorities and a willingness to examine and make the most of their lives, and psychotherapy can therefore become an opportunity for positive change rather than just support for a medical catastrophe. The therapy must address itself to childhood losses and betrayals symbolically repeated in the current medical state.