Although the authors refer to their roles in the treatment of this patient as simply 'relationship therapy', they clearly indicate several other important factors in their method. Besides offering support and empathy, they deliberately fostered adaptive identifications with the therapist. They judiciously used intentionally incomplete analytic interpretations, and they employed education and suggestion. By these means they were able to rehabilitate a patient who had been largely disabled by the psychological conflicts precipitated by a colostomy and surgically induced impotence.