ABSTRACT

The Intensive Psychotherapy of psychosis is a nearly lost and forgotten art. Yet sometimes, a psychotherapeutic exploration of delusions and hallucinations may lead to understanding their origin in early trauma or other painful and warded off experiences, with subsequent healing and cure. In essence, one understands psychotic phenomena as one does dreams or fantasies. Having understood one’s own psychotic metaphor during the course of such an uncovering treatment, medications may be titrated down and hopefully stopped. Such a psychological approach to psychotic phenomena is in marked contrast to the usual excessive reliance on long-term antipsychotic medications, while viewing patients as if they are suffering from a brain disease that needs a protracted medication course. Several healing case examples of such an Intensive Psychotherapy are presented.