ABSTRACT

Sarah Jane F, 3 a 30-year-old married ex-secretary with three children, walked into the mental health center three days after moving to Oxnard, a small city fifty miles north-west of Los Angeles. She was a tall woman who looked at least ten years older than her years because of grey hair, frailty, pallid complexion and an immobile facial expression. She asked for an application form for treatment services in a monotone voice that trailed off inaudibly at the end of each phrase. On the information sheet she wrote her presenting problem:

I've been depressed for one year and while living in San Francisco was hospitalized twice, once for five weeks and again for two weeks. Medication has helped, but I still feel no interest in living. I feel so immobile, like a nothing. I can't function properly at home in my responsibilities. My husband and I hope my coming to the clinic will help the situation.