Intrapsychic Structural Effects of Psychiatric Research
SAMUEL G. SIRIS M.D.1,
JOHN P. DOCHERTY M.D.2, , and
THOMAS H. MCGLASHAN M.D.3
1 Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine of the City University of New York, One Gustave Levy Place, New York, N.Y. 10029
2 Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn.
3 Director of Adult Studies, Chestnut Lodge Research Institute, Rockville, Md.
The authors observed that many psychotic patients on a clinical/research ward incorporated various aspects of research organization into their own evolving intrapsychic structures. This process had either beneficial or deleterious clinical effects, depending on the attributes of the research and the specific mental functions to which these attributes became attached. The observations resulted in the development of a set of recommendations for maximizing the therapeutic usefulness of this phenomenon and minimizing its countertherapeutic drawbacks.
Submitted on August 23, 1978
