A literature therapeutic group at a psychiatric closed-unit

INTRODUCTION: This lecture will present a therapeutic group that took place at a closed-unit in a psychiatric hospital. The members of this group were patients suffering from psychotic disorders OBJECTIVES: Patients suffering from psychotic disorders. METHODS: The patients had difficulty in organizing their thoughts as well as with the expression of their internal-world and emotions. Moreover, they were suspected of the units’ staff members. These circumstances led us to create a theme group that combines a verbal-affective metaphoric instrument - literature. Art, such as literature, represents the mind of its creator and when incorporated into the therapeutic process, can serve as a third-voice - a symbolic language that conveys an idea indirectly and arouses the patient’s personal associations and emotions. The use of literature, while relating to content that aroused from a poem or a short story, led to a connection or an identification with the emotion expressed in the writing stimuli or in opposition to it, and from there to a projection of the internal world of the patient. RESULTS: Through the possibility of alternating between proximity and distance, regard the metaphoric instrument, patients could organize their associations and emotions and express them in a more beneficent way – “normalization” of the cognitive and expressive process. CONCLUSIONS: The analysis of the different group’s sessions, points to the potential of using literature in a therapeutic group with patients in their acute state, at the closed-unit. Examples of verbal reports from different group settings, in which literature was used, will be presented. DISCLOSURE: No significant relationships.