Psychotherapy of psychoses

In this paper the psychotherapy of patients with schizophrenic, schizoaffec tive and affective psychoses is outlined. Psychoanalytic, cognitive-behavio ural and systemic approaches and their theoretical concepts as well as the therapeutic techniques are described. The settings of individual, group and family therapy are also presented,A survey of the types of psychoanalytic therapy with their eldest historic roots is given with the development of t he various psychodynamic concepts for schizophrenic and affective psychoses including schizoaffective psychoses. The different kinds of psychotherapy are compared to each other with respect to the aims. Finally this paper dea ls with the effectiveness of the therapies and discusses the pros and cons of relatively short randomised controlled trials compared with long term ps ychotherapies without control groups.