Psychodynamic treatment of schizophrenia: is there a future?

1The psychoanalytic treatment of schizophrenia has had a long and controversial history.Freud and his more orthodox followers felt that schizophrenics were not suitable for psychoanalysis.However, a long list of dissenters have enthusiastically advocated this treatment (e.g.Rosen, 1947;Fromm-Reichmann, 1950;Will, 1958;Searles, 1965;Pao, 1979).For decades the dominant treatment model, the efficacy of psychoanalytic and psychodynamic interventions for schizophrenia has recently been questioned (May, 1968(May, , 1984)).Despite some decline in popularity, psychodynamic therapy continues to be an important individual treatment modality for schizophrenics.Psychodynamic treatment is usually provided in combination with pharmacotherapy (