Lavarenne Et Al Case Study

Question 1

What was the aim?

Answer 1

To investigate whether those with psychosis had fragile ego boundaries and whether attendance to a group could provide a firm ego boundary so that members could interact with each other.
*To see if the group could develop a sense of connectiveness to combat feelings of loneliness.

Question 2

What was the procedure?

Answer 2

A single session of out-patient group therapy.
•six individuals with schizophrenia or schizoaffective illness took part.
•sessions usually had 10 members but only six attended the 45 minute session which was led by the three researchers.
•They were called the “Thursday Group” as this was the day of the week when they regularly met.

Question 3

What were the results?

Answer 3

• One member gave out Christmas cards and a calendar to the other members which helped his ego boundary and the group’s.
• One member couldn’t accept the calendar as he felt he was selling himself. This member had delusions, thinkign he worked on a multinational.
• The member giving out took this rejection to heart. This shows he had a weak ego boundary and couldn’t distinguish himself from the card.
• One of them had an out of body experience and could not get the spirits back in his body – his boundary was extremely fragile.

Question 4

What was the conclusion?

Answer 4

Each member showed that they suffered from weak ego boundaries.
The group seemed to help strengthen their ego boundaries.