Rediscovering one's own voice in a brief psychoanalytic group intervention aimed at malignant mesothelioma patients and their families

Our plain-English summary of Rediscovering one's own voice in a brief psychoanalytic group intervention aimed at malignant mesothelioma patients and their families, by I.G. Franzoi (Frontiers in Psychology, 2024).

The study

• Author: I.G. Franzoi
• Journal: Frontiers in Psychology
• Published: 2024;15:1471057
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

Occupational and/or environmental exposure to asbestos can lead to clinical manifestation of a variety of diseases, including malignant mesothelioma (MM), a rare cancer with a particularly high incidence rate in areas with a long history of asbestos processing. This paper aims to describe brief psychoanalytic groups (BPGs), which is an intervention model aimed at MM patients and their families in the early stages of the disease, shortly after diagnosis. The BPG model comprises 12 weekly sessions of 1 h each, co-led by two psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapists who are trained in working with cancer patients and their families and in the specifics of the BPG setting. Reflections in this paper on the BPGs will attempt to trace the voice of the group in clinical material, paying attention to its horizontal unfolding as a melodic development over time and its vertical unfolding as a harmonic interweaving between the different individual voices, which, even when opposed to each other, can find a generative interlocking of meaning. In the BPG, then, it is possible to set in motion transformations that allow one to embrace the different and diverse affective colorations of experience, evolve toward a thinking that is capable of incorporating intense emotions related to death and grief, follow healthier paths of interaction on an intrapsychic and interpersonal level, and find traces of one's own vitality.

Copyright © 2024 Franzoi.

In plain English

This article, labelled a "Hypothesis and Theory" paper, described brief psychoanalytic groups (BPGs), a group therapy model for people with malignant mesothelioma and their family members in the first months after diagnosis. The model grew out of work since 2006 in the asbestos-contaminated site of Casale Monferrato, Italy. Each group met for 12 weekly one-hour sessions led by two psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapists. Patients needed a life expectancy of at least 8 months. The author reported that 4 face-to-face and 2 online groups had taken place, with 88 participants: 49 patients and 39 family members. Participants completed a test battery before and after the groups, but this article reported no results from it. Instead, the author discussed translated excerpts from sessions of the four face-to-face groups the author led from 2015 to 2018. The author described early sessions in which body experiences were told mostly as lists of symptoms. In later sessions, fears could be shared more openly. Participants also voiced difficulties with treatment and with recognition, or non-recognition, of the disease as an occupational disease. The author concluded that the group can offer a closeness that can restore trust in oneself, in others and in life. Material from the online groups was left out.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Hypothesis and theory paper: a description of a psychoanalytic group therapy model, illustrated with excerpts from session transcripts; no outcome data reported
• Who was studied: Malignant mesothelioma patients and their family caregivers in Italy. 88 people took part in 6 groups (49 patients, 39 family members). The clinical excerpts come from four face-to-face groups the author conducted from 2015 to 2018.
• Exposure: Not an exposure study. Asbestos exposure is mentioned only as background cause of malignant mesothelioma. What was studied was the BPG intervention: 12 weekly one-hour sessions in the first months after diagnosis, co-led by two psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapists.
• Main results:
  • So far 4 face-to-face and 2 online groups had taken place, with 88 participants in total (49 malignant mesothelioma patients and 39 family members).
  • The author described early sessions in which patients and family members talked about bodily experience mainly as lists of symptoms.
  • In one group the therapists proposed a shared theme for the work in session 3, summed up by the slogan "I don't dance anymore!".
  • The author described how, through the group work, emotions linked to the diagnosis could be expressed and shared, and then lost much of their immediate traumatic potential.
  • Negative feelings in the groups were more often linked to the cancer treatment pathway, experimental therapies, and the recognition or non-recognition of the disease as an occupational disease.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that the psychotherapeutic group can offer patients and family members a closeness that can restore trust in oneself, in others and in life.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Material from the online groups was not used, because the author considered that this setting would need further investigation in future publications.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Malignant Mesothelioma, Environmental Exposure, Incidence.

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