•Patients with severe medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) have problems with mentalization: they have difficulty experiencing a connection between physical phenomena and inner states. Therefore a body-centred mentalizing focus is of great importance during an intensive clinical/day treatment. Therapists focus on their patients’ and their own bodily signals. Their interventions can be classified in a number of categories that are typical for this Bodycentred mentalization-based therapy (B-MBT).
Caspar C. Berghout, Jolien Zevalkink and Thijs de Wolf
In this article the effectiveness of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy is examined. We compared symptoms and personality functioning (SCL-90-R, BDI-II, STAI, IIP-64, MMPI-2) of three groups of patients (before, after and at follow-up) and compared their scores with clinical and non-clinical reference groups. Both psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy were found to be effective in reducing symptoms and personality problems. After treatment a large proportion of the patients appeared to be functioning within the non-clinical range on most of the instruments.