ABSTRACT
The Psychotic Wavelength provides a psychoanalytical framework for clinicians to use in everyday general psychiatric practice and discusses how psychoanalytic ideas can be of great value when used in the treatment of seriously disturbed and disturbing psychiatric patients with psychoses, including both schizophrenia and the affective disorders.
In this book Richard Lucas suggests that when clinicians are faced with psychotic patients, the primary concern should be to make sense of what is happening during their breakdown. He refers to this as tuning into the psychotic wavelength, a process that allows clinicians to distinguish between, and appropriately address, the psychotic and non-psychotic parts of the personality. He argues that if clinicians can find and identify the psychotic wavelength, they can more effectively help the patient to come to terms with the realities of living with a psychotic disorder.
Divided into five parts and illustrated throughout with illuminating clinical vignettes, case examples and theoretical and clinical discussions, this book covers:
- the case for a psychoanalytical perspective on psychosis
- a historical overview of psychoanalytical theories for psychosis
- clinical evidence supporting the concept of a psychotic wavelength
- the psychotic wavelength in affective disorders
- implications for management and education.
The Psychotic Wavelength is an essential resource for anyone working with disturbed psychiatric patients. It will be of particular interest to junior psychiatrists and nursing staff and will be invaluable in helping to maintain treatment aims and staff morale. It will also be useful for more experienced psychiatrists and psychoanalysts.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |44 pages
Making the Case for a Psychoanalytic Perspective on Psychosis
chapter |13 pages
Introduction
chapter |9 pages
The medical model
chapter |20 pages
Controversial issues in psychosis
part |78 pages
Psychoanalytic Theories about Psychosis
chapter |14 pages
Freud's contributions to psychosis
chapter |23 pages
The Kleinian contribution to psychosis
chapter |17 pages
Bion and psychosis
chapter |6 pages
A contemporary Freudian perspective on psychosis
part |61 pages
Tuning into the Psychotic Wavelength
chapter |17 pages
Differentiating psychotic processes from psychotic disorders
chapter |15 pages
The psychotic wavelength
chapter |9 pages
Dreams and delusions
chapter |18 pages
Utilising the countertransference in psychosis
part |48 pages
The Psychotic Wavelength in Affective Disorders
part |76 pages
Implications for Management and Education