Therapy with eight schizophrenic and borderline patients: Summary of a therapy approach that employs a semi-symbiotic bond between patient and therapist

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Abstract
In conclusion, it appears to this therapist that working through a semi-symbiotic union is a useful and perhaps essential therapy technique with both schizophrenic and borderline patients. The essential ingredients of this technique include: (1) open expression of feelings by the therapist; (2) consistency and reliability by the therapist; (3) understanding and acceptance of schizophrenic jargon; (4) acceptance of the patient's ambivalent feelings about closeness and distance and allowing distancing tactics; (5) interpreting and working through distancing needs as an on-going process -- understanding that they generally indicate both fear of rejection and of incorporation; (6) acceptance of a long-term semi-symbiotic responsibility to the patient; (7) expression of the therapist's own legitimate limits and of his inability to meet all the patient's needs; (8) allowing and encouraging the patient the freedom to grow toward increasing independence with security.

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