Changing conceptions of self and world through the spectrum of HIV disease. Implications for psychotherapy

Individuals with HIV disease face ongoing and phasic challenges that may generate psychological stress or clinically significant distress. Such distress may in part be understood as a response to challenges to fundamental personal conceptions of self and world. The authors describe models generated from social cognition research and the stress response literature and then apply them to common psychological themes that are salient for persons with HIV disease. Implications for psychotherapeutic assessment and intervention are discussed, and a case report is presented to illustrate the use of this approach with HIV and AIDS patients.