Maria Rostworowska, Małgorzata Opoczyńska

From monologue towards therapeutic dialogue. Some remarks about systemic family consultations in a psychiatric in-patient ward             29-34

Summary

Based on the example of one patient and her family, the paper discusses the concept of system family consultations as a way forward towards a therapeutic dialogue.

The patient was hospitalized and diagnosed with schizophrenia, following which the psychiatrist attended the patient's family consultation, conducted by a psychologist. The consultation allowed for the develop­ment of a much more complex understanding of the situation. It gave the members of the patient's fam­ily the opportunity to present their own view of what was actually happening. The description of the sit­uation from multiple perspectives exposed the ways in which the patient's symptoms functioned; this, in turn, raised doubts for the psychiatrist about his diagnosis, and made him consider to what extent the di­agnosis of schizophrenia was actually justifiable.

According to the authors, systemic consultations, which create grounds for feeling empathy for the pa­tient's existential, psychological and family problems, lead to a dialogue with the patient's family and there­fore play a significant role in the therapeutic and diagnostic process.

schizophrenia / systemic family consultation / diagnosis / therapy