GROUP-PSYCHOTHERAPY WITH THE PARENTS OF SCHIZOPHRENIC ADULTS

The authors work for several years with parents of schizophrenic adult patients mho are motivated for psychotherapy for themselves. The trea tment of these patients is rooted in the experience that the psychothe rapy of schizophrenic patients is often hindered by the still maintain ed unconscious pathological symbiosis between mother and child or fath er and child or primary group and child. Central themes of the therape utic work are: separation and the break off the separation process, th e separation from the internalized symbiosis with the primary group, m e separation from the irreality of dream-like acting our towards the r eal life with own responsibility. The psychodynamics of these ''parent -patients'' show often the extreme extent of confusion, unconscious id entifications and fusions with their schizophrenic children. If the '' parent-patients'' succeed in stepping off their internalized symbiosis (with their own parents), it is possible that consequently their schi zophrenic children - often dramatically arrested in pathology - develo p steps towards an own identity.