The Psychoanalytic Quarterly 26, 1957, No. 2: Azima, H., and Wittkower, E. D. 'Anaclitic Therapy Employing Drugs. A Case of Spider Phobia with Isakower Phenomena.'

The authors illustrate from a case their technique of therapy utilizing regression. By means of chlorpromazine and barbiturates they induce a state of continuous drowsiness for a period of twenty-five to thirty days. Their object is to achieve a 'temporary regression in some aspects of the body scheme (as defined by Scott) permitting the psychic structure to revert to a period prior to the pre-oedipal frustrations and fixations'. In this case the patient soiled, wetted, and became hallucinated. The intention is to prepare the ground for a corrective experience. This is to be achieved through the therapist playing the role of 'good' mother, gratifying where the original mother frustrated, while at the same time representing reality. The method described was thrice-daily psychotherapeutic interviews lasting an hour to an hour and a half in which the patient was copiously fed by the therapist while free associations were encouraged and analytical interpretations supplied. Chloropromazine was the drug of choice because by reducing anxiety it facilitated the regression without dissolving the ego. The patient remained symptom-free and worked steadily for the six months of the follow-up.