ABSTRACT

THE normal person is able to organize and integrate his thought processes, relation to reality, interpersonal skills, defensive resources, and intellectual capacities in the service of a stable and rewarding life pattern. Such integrating and organizing activity constitutes the synthetic functions of the ego and represents an individual’s general ability to utilize his personality resources effectively. Schizophrenia is often characterized by disorganized and disharmonious personality functioning, the schizophrenic person having many reasonably intact islands of functioning that he cannot bridge and many latent adaptive talents that he is unable to exercise.