Psychosomatics

The first lecture was on "Brain Injury", how this illness affects the family, how their reactions can be tempered and eventually trained to provide the accident-ridden patient who can, sometimes be in a state of absolute vegetation, with the appropriate care. There are special units that are being set up and developed in London hospitals to care for patients who leave the Emergency wards for their rooms. One valuable psychoanalytical comparison was brought to my attention with Bion's concept of containment of the baby by the mother attending to the baby's essential needs after birth. Yet, the patient with brain injury is an adult with a lifetime of knowledge and experience which has to be re-collected or partially forgotten whereas a baby has to learn the basic skills to build up his life-experience. Systemic family therapy is essential for these patients to re-develop their cognitive skills in the presence of loved ones as much as supervision is important for the nurses who care for them everyday.