You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Dr. Sheiner has given us a comprehensive picture of the schizophrenic process as it unfolds during the course of life. I want to elaborate on some of her points.
A solid doctor-patient relationship is a prerequisite for therapy, yet building such a bridge to the schizophrenic meets with specific difficulties. I refer to the degree of alienation1, 2 between the patient and his intrapsychic forces, the distance between routine performance on the stage of life and the inner chaotic powerhouse. Then there is the patient's compulsive need to avoid closeness and contact which may again bring hurt and disappointment.3 Ironically enough, there is a never-ending craving for human relatedness which, in spite of detachment and fears, may drive him into an obsessional overdependence on the doctor.
At first these contradictory moves must be accepted without criticism; the suspicious patient's permanent probing and testing of our reliability and our interest must be tolerated. What is most important, however, is the readiness of the analyst to lay himself open by trying to feel himself into the patient's situation, learning to see things through the eyes of this particular person without losing himself; in such an understanding contact the analyst must always remain aware of his own inner responses. Our continuous efforts to participate in the patient's plight prepare the way for an emotional contact with such a lonely person.
Why is the schizophrenic, in contrast to