AIDS Attacks the Self: A Self-Psychological Exploration of the Psychodynamics Consequences of AIDS

The AIDS epidemic threatens the survival and well-being of people worldwide with its catastrophic physical, psychosocial, and neu­ ropsychiatric consequences . In the United States alone, by October, 1989, AIDS-related illnesses had afflicted 112,241 Americans and killed 66,493 (Hilton, 1989) . By the end of 1992, an estimated 365,000 American cases of AIDS will have been reported; cumulative deaths will total 263,000 (Mason, 1989). More Americans have died in the AIDS epidemic than died in the Vietnam War.