Paranoid reactions respond adversely to almost any kind of human contact.
Thus an individual who is burdened merely with self-doubt and suspicion may in a relationship of even moderate intensity find himself responding with strong mechanisms of denial and projection.
Ego defenders may then shatter with oversensitivity, estrangement, preoccupation, distrust, suspicion, fears of physical and sexual attack, litigious tendencies, homosexual impulses, delusional jealousies, and grandiose delusions (Cameron, N, 1959).
Schizophrenics who interpret psychotherapy as an intrusion on their privacy often will be provoked into fearful or aggressive reactions (Arieti, 1959).
Personality disorders manifest diverse reactions to therapeutic contacts.
Urgent dependency needs may be projected onto the therapist with excessive clinging, release of intense erotic feelings, and liberation of resentment at the inevitable frustration.
Detachment with needs for control may be threatened by the patient’s belief that yielding to another person implies a trap from which there is no escape.
Masochistic prompting may enjoin the individual to torture himself with luxurious symptoms.
Homosexual strivings kept in check prior to treatment may suddenly appear promoting panic.
Impulsive characters may exhibit acting-out proclivities without warning, engaging in outlandish and dangerous activities (Michaels, 1959).
Psychopathic personalities may when challenged respond with excited and even psychotic behavior.
Alcoholics and drug addicts are notoriously treacherous, indulging in defiant and occasionally destructive practices.
Some conversion reactions display alarming conduct when an attempt is made to alleviate or reduce their symptoms.
A psychotic disorder of a depressive or paranoidal type may supervene (Abse, 1959).
In obsessive reactions frightening extremes of anxiety and rage may from time to time be released, along with guilt feelings and expiatory self-punishment, the therapist being accused of promoting the appearance of these symptoms.
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