The author discusses his clinical experiences in treating severly
depressed patients with psychotherapy. The psychotically depressed person
cannot use normal mechanisms to recuperate from sadness because he is
prevented from doing so by a preexisting life ideology that may include
living for a dominant other or a dominant goal and that restricts his
vision of alternative approaches to living. The therapist treating the
severely depressed must initially assume a strong role; later, he helps the
patient recognize depressive cognitive patterns and guides and motivates
him to try other ways of living.
Abstract Teaser