Therapeutic paradox – the patient culture and the formal treatment programme in a therapeutic community

Bibliographic Data

ID9616701
AuthorsMichael Bloor (corresponding author), M J Bloor
Year1981
Volume54
Issue1
Pages359-369
Publication date1981-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBritish Journal of Medical Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-1129 • E-ISSN: 2056-5194
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.2044-8341.1981.tb02575.x
PMID7317314
OpenAlexW2031612628
LanguageEN
Citations received6

Data collected by participant observation in a day hospital are used to examine the complex relationship between informal patient interaction and the formal group therapy programme of this therapeutic community. It was evident that staff might view apparently similar informal patient activities in quite different lights, as either complementary or as detrimental to the work of the formal groups. This apparent inconsistency in staff prescriptions was turned to a therapeutic purpose. Staff would point out to patients the ‘paradox’ of the constant inconsistency of prescriptions for behaviour in daily life: parallels were drawn with the contingent and defeasible prescriptions to which patients were subject in most spheres of human activity. In learning to cope with incipiently contradictory prescriptions inside the day hospital it was felt that patients might learn to cope with incipiently contradictory prescriptions in their relationships outside the day hospital

Medical prescription · Parallels · Psychotherapist · Therapeutic community · Medicine · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Nursing · Psychiatric care and mental health services · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Social Psychology

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