ABSTRACT

This chapter describes the 9-year treatment of Ruth, a 32-year-old, highly traumatized woman. Although many themes arise in this case, it is most strongly distinguished by Ruth's overwhelming feelings of responsibility, identification, and compliance with her profoundly depressed mother and Ruth's consequent terror and avoidance of close relationships. Ruth benefited substantially from the therapy, and we both agreed this was a very successful treatment. This case illustrates a “treatment by attitude” (chapter 7) in that the most curative element of the therapy was my relationship with Ruth. My overall approach and attitude were designed to provide a corrective emotional experience that would enable Ruth to understand and overcome her pathogenic beliefs about herself and her world. Ruth was able to identify with my behaviors and attitudes and use them to develop new relational capacities within herself.