Psychotherapy for People Diagnosed with Schizophrenia

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.