Motherhood and Early Interaction in a Schizoaffective Patient: The Story of a Long-Term Psychotherapy

Pregnancy is a challenging time for the patient with psychosis, the fetus, the psychotherapist, and the team treating the patient. Little is known about being a parent with psychiatric illness and how to manage this clinical situation. This paper is the sequel to a previously published case study that described the process of psychotherapy with a schizoaffective patient (See AJP 62/2, 35-49). The patient became pregnant and gave birth to a boy. This paper reports the psychotherapeutic process of the patient during pregnancy, the child's early years, and over ten years after childbirth. The process of psychotherapy is discussed.