Intensive, Curative, Psychotherapy of Previously Hopeless and “Untreatable” Schizophrenia

Ira Steinman, MD ISPS-US 12th Annual Meeting, San Francisco 2011 Do you find this video useful? Please donate to ISPS-US at: http://www.isps-us.org/donate.php This presentation emphasizes that in this era of treating schizophrenic and delusional patients with a primarily antipsychotic drug oriented approach, there may be a better approach via an Intensive Psychotherapy. These cases demonstrate that an exploration of the meaning to the patient of his psychosis - with judicious antipsychotic use, when indicated - leads to internal character and external behavioral change that is far more lasting than that achieved with antipsychotic medication alone. With such a psychodynamic approach, these previously chaotic, disturbed and heavily medicated people were able to integrate delusional systems that had persisted for many years and give up previous extensive antipsychotic medication, as they understood and worked through psychological issues underlying their psychotic orientation. Copyright ISPS-US 2018