International Journal of Psychiatry Research
Open AccessThe Psychodynamic Pentapointed Cognitive Construct (PPCC) Theory and Model Revisited: Cognitive Neuroscience Relating Psychoanalytic Data to Neurophysiology in the Treatment of Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective Disorder
Authors: Gillian Steggles.
Abstract
The Psychodynamic Pentapointed Cognitive Construct (PPCC) model, first described as representing the process of recovery of a schizoaffectively disordered mind [1], is revisited here regarding its potential usefulness: from being simply a model of the therapeutic consultation practised in the psychoanalytic psychotherapy of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, to being a resource for Psychiatric and Psychoanalytic studies. This paper describes briefly this model’s development, and its subsequent potential usefulness to both Psychiatric and Psychoanalytic knowledge through the practice of successful clinical treatment of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. The model was developed during the psychoanalytic psychotherapy of a 28 year old woman. Its four patient variables were confirmed 24 years later in a Psychiatry textbook as being seminal to psychoanalytic theories. The model was cognitively structured, and then applied to examining the clinical therapeutic relationship. Cognitive neuroscience offers understanding of the illnesses’ psychopathology which the model will employ to help guide treatment potentially on an individual basis. If a patient’s history and symptoms are entered into the model, patterns and information may emerge; if analysed, conclusions may be reached about features of the individual patient, or about the commonality of features in epidemiological studies of patients suffering from schizophrenic or schizoaffective illness. It therefore offers very versatile applications, for example, illustrating contrasts between a patient’s mind prior to, and when undertaking psychoanalytic psychotherapy. The PPCC model’s veracity has been studied and the methodology of developing it provided, for it to be used as a research tool in qualitative or epidemiological research.
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