TECHNICAL PROBLEMS IN THE TREATMENT OF SC HIZOPHRENIC PSYCHOSIS

The author gives a general view of different concepts of schizophrenia , the common denominator being the schizophrenic's incapacity to diffe rentiate dearly between the definition of himself and that of others. The central schizophrenic conflict is not reenacted in the therapeutic situation as a transference reaction proper, as a symbolically repres entated relation, but as presymbolic pattern of affective behaviour. T he author suggests a therapeutic technique as a essential prerequisit to analytic technique proper. At first the analyst has to avoid the re petition of pathologic psychosocial arrangements between therapist and patient on an body-ego level. By means of a ''therapeutic symbolizati on'' in the course of which the analyst and the patient negotiate the schizophrenic's basic problem, the building up of representations of t he former presymbolic problematic becomes possible. Only on this base can interpretations and reconstructions be useful. The author referes to the paradigma of contingency and compares his method of treatment w ith that of others.