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To the Editors: I congratulate the editors of The Forum for the fascinating way in which authors and discussants can respond to each other and the reader can have a “living” experience as these men discuss directly with each other the areas of agreement and disagreement. Such discussions are richly rewarding as a learning experience and far livelier than a straight paper in which no points are contested or discussed and the reader is left to his own lonely thoughts.
Dr. L. Bryce Boyer is to be applauded for his experimental approach in analyzing schizophrenic patients [“Office Treatment of Schizophrenic Patients by Psychoanalysis,” The Psychoanalytic Forum, Vol. 1, No. 4]. Yet we know that not only psychotics but even neurotics can gain insight and have a meaningful analytic relationship even without lying down or seeing the analyst but briefly.
Many of these patients, especially those who are most deprived of a meaningful interrelationship with a human being (which is one of the bases for the schizophrenic reaction), indeed, need to develop a symbiotic relationship with the analyst. Some schizophrenic patients never go beyond that point, but if they can modify the introject by incorporating some of the analyst, their impoverished ego is that much more enriched and mature. Most schizophrenic patients require a more human experience which can be best achieved by viewing the analyst and his responses. The development of insight and maturity does not require that the patient use the ritual of the couch.
Albert Schrut, M.D.
Beverly Hills, California