ABSTRACT
The cathexis approach was originally developed by Jacqui Schiff ± one of the early transactional analysts in Berne's seminars. Shortly after taking into her home a young schizophrenic man and beginning residential therapy, she established a residential treatment centre for clients in psychosis. Their centre was originally based in Fredericksburg, Virginia, USA, and then because of controversy, moved to Oakland, California, where in addition to the residential centre, they opened a day treatment facility. Following the success of the Oakland project Schiff opened another centre in Hollywood. The theory and methods of the cathexis approach were developed by Jacqui and her colleagues who joined her at the Cathexis Institute. Within the relatively protected residential setting for therapy, the Schiffs experimented with `allowing' the clients to regress, and `redo' early developmental de®cits and cathect new Parent ego states. The Cathexis Institute programme experienced huge problems (and Jacqui was expelled from the International Transactional Analysis Association [ITAA]) amid controversy relating to breaches of ethics including physical punishment of clients. Eventually a young man in treatment at The Cathexis Institute died following injuries sustained while at the institute and the Californian authorities closed down the programme. Despite this controversy and problems in methodology, many of the insights and methods developed at The Cathexis Institute have been successfully and ethically adapted by TA therapists and used with a wide range of clients. In a particularly interesting development a form of cognitive-behavioural therapy called schema-based therapy now utilizes procedures it refers to as `limited reparenting' (Young et al., 2003).
