Reply to comment

Our group decided that an initial reaction should look into why this patient is wetting his bed, physiologically. Is he on medication with a bed wetting side effect? Did he suffer neurological damage that disables him from controling his bladder while sleeping? Investigating answers to these questions could solve his problem.

There is also the mental "abnormality" in this case that we felt obliged to address. The patient's storyteller is convinced that the patient is not responsible for wetting his bed. Instead, the patient insists that someone else is wetting his bed.

This story, which the patient adheres to, may be problematic if it results in his refusal to be treated for his incontinence. Our first step in confronting his storyteller is to not confront it. We would rather embrace it. We would have the patient elaborate his story by asking him questions such as who is wetting his bed? when is the stranger wetting his bed? why doesn't the patient wake up when his bed is wetted?

We would then film the patient during the night to determine if he is, indeed, wetting his own bed or if his story is true. Presuming that his story isn't true, we would show the patient the film of himself and take it from there.

-Paul Bloch, Julianne Rieders, Julia Lewis