Psychosomatic Medicine 7:147-151 (1945)
© 1945 American Psychosomatic Society

The Therapeutic Role of Drugs in the Process of Repression, Dissociation and Synthesis

In summary, we have pointed out that the processes of repression, dissociation and synthesis, which are the operating concepts in the genesis and therapy of the neuroses, apply equally to the patient under drugs.

Drugs facilitate the recovery of that which has been repressed and dissociated, by rendering the personality less vulnerable to the exposure of material which in the waking state may be intolerable. For the same reasons, interpretations (or syntheses) may be accepted and integrated without catastrophic disturbances.

These facts permit the use of drugs in dynamic psychotherapy to circumvent resistances.

The therapist who is dynamically oriented can control the therapeutic progress by balancing the adaptive capacity of the patient to the exposed material and to the therapeutic interpretations.

Note:
From the New York Neurological Institute, and the Department of Neurology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, under a grant from the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation.

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