ABSTRACT

These two quotations capture the essence of the dominant views formed in the twentieth century of the causes and treatment of psychosis. Jaspers (1913) outlined a distinction between neurosis and psychosis that is still seen in diagnostic classification systems today. He argues that the distinction needs to be made because psychosis, in contrast to neurosis, is ‘ununderstandable’ in terms of the person’s life experiences. Consequently, clinicians saw no reason to listen to the talk of patients with psychosis, as illustrated in the influential textbook Clinical Psychiatry. Such treatment ideas were not confined to psychiatry. A number of psychologists applied reinforcement techniques to try to reduce the time that patients spoke about their delusions (e.g. Liberman et al, 1973).