Search

Caring about the family is complicated within the clinical practice of head injured patients. Context: This article deals with the close family members and close relations of patients who are hospitalized in coma arousal units. Taking the patient into account in his whole psychological and neurological suffering, it deals with the works based on the subjective instability of patients and the consequences of these intersubjective relationships with the relatives. Methodology and results: This is a clinical approach, based on the daily practice of a psychologist who works in a coma arousal unit and on work for a doctoral thesis We can identify the complexity acting on each subjectivities and intersubjective relations bet- ween family members, the patient and medical staff. Discussion: This clinical approach based on patients'relatives has specificities with subjective and intersubjective levels. Prospects: Thanks to those results, we consider the necessity to take the personal history of everyone into account, in order to give them a support, considering the specific experiences of the relatives, all along the hospitalisation of the patient. It can be noted, thanks to those results, that the medical staff should help the relatives to express their own subjectivity. At the same time, the staff should make them aware of the fact that the patient has to become somebody again during the arousal process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]