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Losing Ann: Countertransference Aspects of Altering the Frame with a Long Term Patient Facing Atypical Dementia

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It is as if the real work is in the between and emerges from what I thought the work was about. South African Printmaker William Kentridge from a PBS documentary called “Century on Compassion and Conscience” (2009).

Abstract

This paper chronicles the journey of a long term, suicidally depressed patient’s struggle of growth and survival, only to be struck down by a form of Dementia: Lewy Body Disorder. Focus of the paper highlights the myriad complications and struggles that developed in the countertransference as therapist, patient, family, and medical caregivers, try to ascertain: What is psychological and regressive? What is neuro-degenerative? How can the therapist cope with this confusion while maintaining the frame? The paper highlights how the frame as we know it, is altered to meet the medical and psychological crisis presented and how that alteration impacts the treatment and the therapist’s changing perception of what the work is about.

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Acknowledgments

Conversations with Patricia Walter were invaluable contributions to the content of this paper.

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  1. 1381 Cheviotdale Drive, Pasadena, CA, 91105, USA

    Paula Shatsky

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  1. Paula Shatsky
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Correspondence to Paula Shatsky.

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Shatsky, P. Losing Ann: Countertransference Aspects of Altering the Frame with a Long Term Patient Facing Atypical Dementia. Clin Soc Work J 41, 50–56 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-012-0389-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-012-0389-y

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