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EMERGENCIES AND CRISIS ARE ALARMING events which occur within the framework of societal, familial and individual settings. Under ordinary circumstances, there is no particular need to draw a sharp line of distinction between the two concepts.
In intensive psychotherapy, however, crisis and emergency may be considered as two separate events with different connotations and different consequences. It will be shown that there is distinct merit in conceiving of a clinical line of demarcation between the above mentioned phenomena despite their more or less identical overt appearance.
In my definition, an emergency is the occurrence of an urgent situation demanding action. The nature of most emergencies is such that life can go on as usual after the emergency has passed. There is, for all practical purposes, hardly a limit as to the number of times that an emergency can repeat itself without necessarily bringing about a significant change in the person's life style.
In contrast to an emergency, a crisis tends to preclude the possibility of life going on as usual. By definition, crisis is considered to be a decisive or vitally important stage in an individual's existence. It is the point in time when a person comes to a distinct crossroad where he may have to turn in one direction or another without the opportunity of reverting to an old pattern.
In my conception, a crisis represents a particular climax reflecting a juncture in one's way of living. To illustrate my point, I wish to refer to the familiar medical model of crisis. In medicine, a crisis occurs in the course of a disease with a point of culmination which may either be resolved by recovery from the illness, permit the