ABSTRACT
The clinical picture of psychosis has greatly changed on account of the availability of medication. The disorder no longer necessarily takes an inevitable chronic course but consists of recurring critical episodes. The continuous or unitary hypotheses seek to keep analytic theory of psychosis and neurosis linked and tend to interpret psychotic behaviour as originating unconsciously in intrapsychic conflicts similar in nature to those of neurotic patients. In psychosis the patient is largely unaware of the dangerous mental state related to this pathological process; once set in motion, the process produces changes that are difficult to reverse and which paralyse or destroy the recognition of psychic truth. Psychoanalytic technique, the foundations of clinical work, consists in the analyst’s ability to understand the patient’s mental state so as to describe his experiences and thus activate his understanding of psychic processes.
