The Model-Scene in Group Psychotherapy with Chronic Psychotic Patients

ABSTRACT

According to Lichtenberg (Lichtenberg, Lachman, & Fosshage, 1992) the modelscene is a scene imagined by the patient and the therapist that recalls the emotional content of a pattern of a relationship, which the patient has repeatedly experienced with a caregiver. In chronic psychotic patients, mechanisms of splitting, projection, and emotional self-mutilation make it particularly difficult to understand the archaic structures of interaction that maintain an influence on present behavior and internal emotional experience. The model-scene may be a useful instrument to integrate fragmented and dispersed mental elements. The authors describe their experience in an analytically oriented therapy group that was carried out in an institutional setting. The technique was based on the creation of model-scenes starting from the relationships of individual members in the group.