ABSTRACT
In this chapter the general requirements for a case study are explained, especially that it should be instructive and open to discussion. The difference between illustrative case vignettes and in-depth descriptions of the course of treatment in cross-sectional and longitudinal sections is pointed out. In view of the following detailed presentation of a Jungian psychoanalysis, the significance of the creative stimuli of the unconscious of the analysand is emphasized, as they had occurred especially in dreams and artwork.
At the beginning the analysand is vividly described: its outward appearance, characteristic attitudes and idioms, its life situation, its suffering, its concern. The spontaneous countertransference of the analyst is presented. Then the current symptoms (social fears, depressive moods) are explained in a differentiated way and their history from the point of view of the analysand. It becomes clear that this symptomatology has a biographical history that goes back to childhood and that it has always occurred as a crisis. There was a development into a loner. A traumatic shock was the accidental death of his father in his presence.
From the analyst’s point of view, considerations are then given on the significance of typological attitudes (extraversion, introversion) and the development of the four basic psychological functions (thinking, feeling, intuition, feeling). Pathogenic sides of the parent complexes are highlighted as disorder relevant. These include a retaining and parentifying mother imago and an overly strict father imago, in which authoritarian aspects of the grandparents are also included (s. c. negative ‘senex’ elements). Positive aspects of the parent imagines and inner resources of the analysand are juxtaposed.
One section describes the joint decision-making process for the specific depth psychological treatment method for this analysand and the decision-relevant considerations here. There was a clear indication for an analytical psychotherapy.
Psychotherapeutic treatment takes place between the poles of conflict and relationship: the primary transference impulses unfold in interactional confrontation in the here and now. In the long term therapeutic work unfolds an intersubjective-libidinal transference constellation. The different therapeutic attitudes that result from the decision for a psychotherapeutically based psychotherapy (psychotherapeutic attitude) or an analytical psychotherapy (psychoanalytic attitude) are presented.
Long-term analytical psychotherapy is associated with a growing therapeutic relationship in time and with work in transference. The psychoanalytic attitude initially remains rather contemplative and encourages one to think first and to postpone active action. Psychotherapy based on depth psychology is more oriented towards the pole of conflicts and the focal treatment of interactional conflict constellations and maladaptive relationship patterns. The psychotherapeutic attitude is symptom-oriented, goal-oriented, focally centred and solution-oriented. It strives for change through interaction – whereas the psychoanalytic attitude rather aims for change through reflection of interactions.
My initial treatment considerations were oriented towards the predominantly narcissistic and compulsive neurotic way of life. The analysand corresponded in its current attitude to life to the character of a ‘Puer aeternus’. The central individuation problem of such people is to take responsibility for oneself and others, to engage with others, to work reliably and to discover one’s own creativity.
