Dynamic Possibilities in the Therapy of Psychosis: A Symposium

The first paper this afternoon is entitled “Diagnosing and Prognosing in Occult Schizophrenia.” I would like to devote a few minutes to a subsidiary problem, that is diagnosing occulting schizophrenia. To occult is to hide, obscure, cover by another body (as one planet occults another)—it is to mystify. If we look upon schizophrenia as a peculiar way of living under impossible circumstances and with impossible people, we can get some idea of hiding, covering and obscuring.

In the past, damaging interpersonal relationships were occulted by inserting the idea of possession by evil spirits as the cause of psychosis. This notion arose simultaneously with the possibility of cure by exorcism. The idea of organic causality which is still prevalent, as genetic, bio-chemical, brain damage, etc., again obscures the damaging possibilities of interpersonal relations. These ideas arise simultaneously with medical, electrical and chemical methods of treatment. The full acceptance of what people can do to each other and for each other—since psychosis may be seen as sacrificing oneself for others—is slow in developing. One still tends to think more easily of schizophrenia as a group of disease entities with mysterious and unknown causes. I tend to believe that at present we are fighting against what can be known; we are occulting our data and we will continue to do so until we can dare to believe that the “Rape of the Mind,” which is Meerloo's descriptive term for brainwashing, is an everyday affair. We can then see that “psychosis wishes” (wishing to drive the other person crazy) are as common as death wishes but unfortunately more potent and effective. I am referring here to several articles by people deeply and intimately concerned with the treatment of schizophrenia. The first article, by Harold Searles , has the striking title “The Effort to Drive the Other Person Crazy: An Element in the Etiology and Psychotherapy of Schizophrenia.”¹ Laing wrote ab