Self Psychology and Psychosis: The Development of the Self During Intensive Psychotherapy of Schizophrenia and other Psychoses 1st edition

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Publisher Marketing: In this groundbreaking volume, Drs. David Garfield and Ira Steinman bring us into the immediacy of the analyst s consulting room in direct confrontation with the thought disorder, delusions and hallucinations of their patients grappling with psychosis. From the early days of psychoanalysis when Freud explicated the famous Schreber case, analysts of all persuasions have brought a variety of theories to bear on the problem of schizophrenia and the other psychoses. Here, as William Butler Yeats notes, the center cannot hold and any sense of self-esteem--positive feelings about oneself, a continuous sense of self in time and a functional coherence and cohesion of self--is shattered or stands in imminent danger. What makes psychoanalytic self psychology so compelling as a framework for understanding psychosis is how it links together the early recognition of narcissistic impairment in these disorders to the experience-near focus which is the hallmark of self psychology. Now, with Garfield and Steinman s descriptions of healing in the mirroring, idealizing and twinship experiences of treatment, the theory of self psychology, in a comprehensive fashion, is brought to bear on the psychoses for the very first time. Join Garfield and Steinman as they bring the reader into these analytic journeys, inspired by Kohut and his followers and crafted with their own original insights as patients find their way back to a meaningful and functional existence."

Contributor Bio:  Steinman, Ira Ira Steinman has focused on schizophrenia for 45 years; his early training ranged from studying with R. D. Laing to working at the National Academy of Sciences Drug Efficacy Study, which evaluated all the antipsychotic medications available at that time. For more than 35 years, he has pursued an out-patient psychiatric practice where he has been able to demonstrate that an intensive psychoanalytic psychotherapy, in conjunction with the judicious use of antipsychotic medication, can help even the most lost and disturbed schizophrenic and delusional patients recover, heal and, at times, achieve a cure. With such an approach, some allegedly untreatable schizophrenics have been able to work their way off of antipsychotic medication. He has spoken on this subject at length on a local, statewide, national and international level for more than twenty five years. He is a member of the ISPS (International Society for the Psychological Treatments of the Schizophrenias and other Psychoses); the American Psychiatric Association; and the Northern California Psychiatric Association. Contributor Bio:  Garfield, David A S David A. S. Garfield