ABSTRACT
Psychoanalytic concepts, both descriptive and explanatory, materially contribute to the understanding, management, and treatment of the schizophrenias. Prior to the introduction of chemotherapy, remissions occurred, but where the illness was of long duration, patients were fearful and disturbed in their behaviour. The management of these abnormal mental states taxed the resources of the hospital staff. The clinical phenomena provide the basis for an understanding of mental events that imitate the morbid process and how the morbid process has affected the patient's mental life. The similarity that exists between the mental life of healthy young children and that of schizophrenic patients demonstrates the principle that nothing new is created by the morbid process. During the psychoanalytic treatment of the neuroses, the patient tolerates his resistances, and, with the help of the analyst's interpretations, the unacceptable wish phantasies that provoked the symptoms come to consciousness with beneficial effects.
