Schizophrenia: A Contemporary Introduction provides a vital overview of psychoanalytic work with patients dealing with schizophrenia, highlighting the many benefits of this approach and introducing key methods for mental health practitioners.
This concise introductory volume starts by offering a brief historical introduction to how psychoanalysts, from Freud onwards, have approached schizophrenia and the methods they have used to alleviate the distress it causes its sufferers. Gillian Steggles illustrates how the developing relationship between patient and analyst can positively impact the patient’s mental functioning, leading to an improvement in their overall health and the ability to regain independence and self-reliance. She introduces theoretical psychoanalytic approaches, such as the Psychodynamic Pentapointed Cognitive Construct (PPCC) model, as a means of offering guidance to analysts dealing with schizophrenic analysands.
This book will be of interest to practicing and trainee analysts, as well as those interested in the history of schizophrenia and its continued impact.
Part I Encountering schizophrenia 1. Common concepts and impressions of schizophrenia 2. Schizophrenia in families 3. The observed and the experiential faces of schizophrenia Part II Psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic approaches to schizophrenia 4. The contribution of Psychoanalysis towards understanding schizophrenia 5. Psychoanalytic and non-psychoanalytic features of psychoanalytic psychotherapy for schizophrenia 6. Psychotherapeutic approaches to schizophrenia Part III The process and results of treating schizophrenic and schizoaffective patients with psychoanalytic psychotherapy 7. Effective hospital-based treatment of schizophrenic patients 8. Difficulties encountered during psychoanalytic psychotherapy and overcoming them 9. Maintaining psychological wellbeing during the treatment process
Biography
Gillian Steggles is an academic psychiatry researcher based in London. She has a degree in Medicine from University College Hospital, London, and a PhD in Psychoanalytic Studies from Essex University, and her work centres on a psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic approach to schizophrenia.
