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Schizophrenic states are described as resulting from impairment of the ego. The nonpsychotic residue is defined as those ego functions which have escaped involvement in the psychosis. In this context the synthetic and defensive functions of the ego are given equal importance to attention, self-awareness, thinking, perceiving, memory, and control of motility.
Clinical material gathered in the course of psychotherapy with schizophrenic patients is used to illustrate the fluctuations in the level of cognitive functions, the role of unconscious conflict in symptom-formation, and the variations in transference manifestations. The degree to which certain ego functions remain psychotic depends upon the invasiveness of the disorder. To the extent that such ego functions continue free from the psychosis, they perform much as they do in neurotic patients but remain liable to alteration with extension of the psychotic process. As long as the psychosis has a limited effect upon ego functions, transferences not unlike those in the neuroses will occur, consensual communication will proceed, and unconscious conflict will remain active in determining the content of the illness.