Enacting corrective interpersonal experiences with the depressed client: an intervention model.

In an attempt to protect the self from anxiety associated with the need for tenderness, the depressed patient enacts particular interpersonal phenomena designed to create distance and control intimacy. A theoretical framework using Sullivan and Peplau explains these phenomena in the context of the therapeutic nurse-patient relationship and guides specific responses by the nurse to create a corrective interpersonal experience. Case material illustrates these processes.