Psychotherapy for People Diagnosed with Schizophrenia: Specific Techniques - Paperback

by Andrew Lotterman (Author)

In this unique book, Andrew Lotterman describes a creative approach to the psychotherapy of people diagnosed with schizophrenia and other forms of psychosis. Lotterman focuses on specific techniques that can be used in psychological therapy with people who have symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, ideas of reference, looseness of association and pressured speech. Formerly titled Specific Techniques for the Psychotherapy of Schizophrenic Patients, this edition updates research on the biology and psychology of psychosis and explores the many controversial issues surrounding diagnosis. It also includes two new chapters on the psychology and treatment of paranoia and on the experience of having a shattered self and the delusion of being the Messiah.

Lotterman's innovative approach aims to help patients with one of the most debilitating symptoms of psychosis: the collapse of language use. By restoring language as a way of communicating the patient's meaningful inner life to himself and to others, the patient is then able to undertake a more traditional form of verbal psychotherapy. The book presents detailed case histories of patients who have benefited from this method, highlighting the specific techniques used and the psychological improvements that followed. The approach presented here complements medication-based treatments that have only had partial success, as well as other psychological approaches such as cognitive behavioural therapy, family therapy and social skills training.

Psychotherapy for People Diagnosed with Schizophrenia will be a valuable text for clinicians working with people suffering from psychosis, including psychotherapists, psychoanalysts, psychologists, physicians and social workers. It will also be of great interest to academics and students.

Back Jacket

This valuable book presents a detailed method for psychotherapy with schizophrenic patients. Unlike much of the previous work on psychotherapy with schizophrenic patients, which has not focused on specific techniques, this volume concentrates on the particular details of working psychologically with patients who have such psychotic symptoms as hallucinations, delusions, paranoid ideas, ideas of reference, looseness of association, and pressured speech. Dr. Lotterman clearly describes a technical approach that addresses what is psychologically unique about schizophrenic patients. Dr. Lotterman presents his view of the structure of the mind in schizophrenic patients and explains how that structure differs from that seen in neurotic and borderline patients. He then shows how psychotherapy technique should be modified in order to address this particular schizophrenic structure. For example, due to a process Dr. Lotterman calls deconceptualization, the schizophrenic's capacity to think in concepts deteriorates. Thoughts and meanings become compressed into sensations or perceptions; the socially shared common language is lost. As a result, schizophrenic patients have few words to describe their inner states, and traditional forms of psychotherapy, which depend so exclusively on the use of language, are robbed of their power. Lotterman suggests several ways to address this specific aspect of schizophrenic psychological structure, so that a more standard form of verbal psychotherapy can develop.

Author Biography

Andrew Lotterman, M.D., is a training and supervising psychoanalyst and associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, USA. He has published widely on psychotherapy for psychosis.