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It is refreshing to read a present-day volume on schizophrenia that does not deal with PET-scans, CT-scans, evoked potentials, or neurotransmitters. Without a doubt the neurosciences have contributed greatly to our understanding of the brain of the schizophrenic, but they have contributed very little to our understanding of the schizophrenic as a person. Anyone who has treated schizophrenic patients knows that it takes much more than the prescribing of the correct medication to help them function in society. The ideal therapeutic approach attends to the psychosocial aspects of their lives as well as to the biological aspects of their brains. In this book, Ciompi does not set forth simple recipes for treating the complex lives of schizophrenics; rather he develops a model for the mind of the schizophrenic patient that bridges the psychosocial with the biological and thereby offers the therapist a basis for understanding his patient so that he can develop an appropriate treatment plan.
Anyone familiar with the literature knows that Luc Ciompi is a Swiss psychiatrist who has had extensive experience in the treatment of schizophrenic patients. The contents of this book are an outgrowth of his clinical work with these patients and his extensive knowledge of the literature of the field. Although I did not read this book in the original, I found that the translation by Deborah Lucas Schneider was well written, readable, and easy to follow.
The book is divided into seven chapters. In the first four chapters, the author gradually and meticulously sets down his model for understanding the mind; in the remaining three chapters he waxes more clinically, applying his understanding