In search of the true self: a clinical journey through the vale of soul-making.

摘要

Once a person accepts any form of mainstream mental health care, she is faced with the paradox of disabling caring. Every time an emotionally distressed individual is professionally rescued, she forfeits a golden opportunity to discover and utilize her own healing potential. Yet within a mental health service that is heavily medicalized and investing more and more in time-limited therapies, can it ever be otherwise? Drawing on the developmental theory of Donald Winnicott, together with the poet John Keats' concept of 'Soul-making', this case study provides an account of therapy delivered from outside the parameters of a health-illness model of caring. It acknowledges human suffering as a natural and inevitable part of life and, whilst acknowledging the value of therapeutic companionship, proclaims the mentally distressed person as best placed to navigate her own recovery.