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While not so frequently published, psychodynamically oriented psychotherapeutic activities in the therapy of psychoses have considerable weight in the daily clinical practice. The authors of this book—specialists in psychiatry and psychotherapy—present us with pragmatic and concrete lines of dealing with psychotic patients in various problematic situations. The nature of the numerous varieties of psychotic illnesses hinders them from presenting a closed system of one or perhaps two psychotherapeutic doctrines, for instance Freudian and/or Jungian, as a basis of all the facets of being in a beneficial psychotherapeutic relationship with the patients.
The authors begin by describing the main psychoanalytic hypotheses of Freud, Federn, Jung, M. Klein, Benedetti, Mentzos etc. about the psychodynamic preconditions of the onset of a psychosis. They give the main symptoms in clearly arranged tables. In the following chapters we get a presentation of the genuine research areas: the paraconstructions and the cognitive disorders of psychotic patients. Facing the danger of fragmentation, the psychotic patient is trying to protect and to save the cohesion of his self with diverse symptoms and modes of behavior such as delusions, mutistic-autistic behavior and so on. All these fantasies and actions are named paraconstructions. This term combines somatic concepts with psychodynmic aspects and includes the cognitive disorders. “As paraconstruction we designate such symptoms of schizophrenic psychoses, which we interprete as modes of reaction to a desintegration in connection with a psychotic ego—disorder” (translation by A.T.). Hartwich & Grube describe steps of reconstruction by verbalising (in cases of delusion), by nonverbal communication, for instance through computer-painting (with mutistic-autistic paraconstruction) or by sculpture work with megalomaniac patients. In a further chapter the authors describe the mirroring by means of video tapes for treating cognitive disorders.