[Relational models and psychopathology of epileptics in a group-psychotherapy perspective (author's transl)]. / Note per una psicopatologia relazionale dei pazienti epilettici e prospettive psicoterapeutiche in gruppo

Epileptic patients show a large range of psychopathologic manifestations, both from a qualitative point of view (even with an exact reference to the nature and the site of lesion) and from a quantitative point of view (from the so-called characterial attitude to the psychotic developments). Perhaps all these alterations of psychiatric interest have a common denominator because, after all, they arise from the sum of two essential moments: the experience of the critical event on the one hand, and the interactive network between the patient and those who are present to his critical manifestations on the other. In particular this complex relational psychopathology needs several therapeutic interventions which are to be complementary and concordant so that they may give satisfactory results of psychosocial reinsertion. We think that the model of intervention to be preferred for its effectiveness is that drawn from group-psychotherapy tecniques: the model in which "psychoanalysis meets sociology (Foulkes) seems to be particularly specific to this problem because it concerns the microsocial and investigates (and, by means of the conduction, it resolves) distorted ways of communication and conflictual dynamic interactions. We followed some epileptics in the group-community of the neurological department of a general hospital (of course with other mental, not epileptic, patients). These preliminary studies lead us to point out the theoretical reasons and the practical justifications of such possible management of the psychological manifestations of epileptic patients.