ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the ways in which medication can make psychotherapy more productive and in which psychotherapy can help patients to accept the need for medication. Medication can aid psychotherapy not only by reducing disruptive symptoms, but also through presenting opportunities to address psychological factors and conflicts triggered through the employment of psychopharmacology. In addition, patients presenting with personality disorders, such as narcissistic and borderline disorder, who appear to be resistant to psychotherapeutic intervention can have underlying affective or cognitive disorders that exacerbate their symptomatology. Medication intervention, by presumptively affecting the chemical origins of problems, can help to clarify which aspects of the patient's problems are obstruction versus those that are primarily resistance. Patients may find it helpful to become aware of these interactions for the purpose of accepting combined treatment and to gain an understanding of the feelings and symptoms with which they have been struggling. Countertransference reactions may be heightened in the treatment of noncompliant patients.
