Re: An Adlerian Approach to CJD

Debbie,

Thank you for the comprehensive information about CJD.

From an Adlerian perspective, any debilitating disease, as well as the prospect of death, can be seen as a major difficulty that challenges an individual's style of life, fictional final goal, and feeling of community.

After learning about the medical aspects of the problem, an Adlerian therapist would focus on what the individual could do within those medical limits, as well as the social impact of their choices. Some clients might basically need emotional support and encouragement as they courageously face the problem; others could also require therapeutic empathy to deal with depression, discouragement, and anxiety, as well as insight to help change unrealistic expectations or socially dysfunctional behavior; yet others might benefit from a more philosophical or spiritual approach.

Coping with the uncertainty about the potential development of CJD might take some in-depth understanding of the person's perspective on the future. For example, one person might realistically consider that a negative event "might" happen to him; a depressive person could pessimistically ruminate that the event "was going to happen" to him; and a psychotic person could hold a delusion that the event "had already happened" to him. Clearly, the depressive and psychotic persons suffer significantly more, even if the event never happens. Excessive anticipation of negative events can sometimes used to avoid present responsibilities, or gain a margin of distance from a feared future test of one's abilities.

An Adlerian does not usually focus on the general aspects of the disease, (unless the client needs more information) but on the unique individual who has the disease, and his or her way of dealing with it as well as the people in his life. Consequently, few generalizations can be made, since any effective intervention would depend on an understanding of the individual's style of life and fictional final goal.

For an explanation of Adlerian terminology, please refer to Classical Adlerian Theory and Practice at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/hstein/theoprac.htm .

Dr. Stein

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