Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T17:00:39.914Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The psychoanalytic deficiency theory of schizophrenic psychoses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2014

Thomas Freeman
Thomas Freeman*
Affiliation:
Anna Freud Centre, 21 Maresfield Gardens, London NW3.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The Psychoanalytic Deficiency Theory of the Schizophrenias postulates that the symptomatology results from psychical dissolution. Its claim for credibility rests on the range of the clinical observations which it embraces – from the prodromal symptoms to the variety of courses which the schizophrenias follow. The fate of the prodromal symptoms, often indistinguishable from neurotic manifestations, suggest that dissolution and not mental conflict is responsible. The deficiency theory acknowledges the part played by phantasy and conflict in creating the content of delusions. Their form can only be determined by psychical dissolution. The therapeutic approach based on the deficiency theory is to strengthen the residues of the patient's healthy mental life within the context of the psychiatrist-patient and nurse-patient relationship in order to encourage insight into the falsifications and misinterpretations of reality which have contributed to the symptoms.

Keywords

Deficiencydissolutiondysmorphophobiaprimary processtransferencepre-psychotic phase.
Type
Perspectives
Information
Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , September 1990 , pp. 147 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Freud, S. Psychoanalytical notes on an autobiographical account of a case of paranoia (1911). In: Standard Edition 12. London: Hogarth Press.Google Scholar
2.Federn, P. Ego psychology and the psychoses. London: Imago, 1953.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3.Wexler, M. Schizophrenia: conflict and deficiency. Psychoanal Quart 1971; 40: 83–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4.Bak, R. Object relationships in schizophrenia and perversion. Int J Psychoanal 1971; 52: 235–242.Google ScholarPubMed
5.London, NJ. An essay in psychoanalytic theory: two theories of schizophrenia. Int J Psychoanal 1973; 54: 169–193.Google ScholarPubMed
6.Freud, S. The interpretation of dreams (1900). In: Standard Edition 4. London: Hogarth Press.Google Scholar
7.Jackson, JH. The factors of insanities (1894). In: Taylor, J, ed. Collected works of Hughlings Jackson 2. London: Staples.Google Scholar
8.Ey, H. Hughlings Jackson's principles and the organo-dynamic concept of psychiatry. Am J Psychiatry 1962; 121: 673–683.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9.Freeman, T. The psychoanalyst in psychiatry. London: Karnac Books, 1988.Google Scholar
10.Yorke, SCB, Wiseberg, S, Freeman, T. Development and psychopathology. New Haven: Yale Univ Press, 1989.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11.Bleuler, E. Dementia Praecox or the group of schizophrenias (1911). New York: Int Univ Press, 1955.Google ScholarPubMed
12.Katan, M. Further explorations of the schizophrenic regression to the undifferentiated state. Int J Psychoanal 1979; 60: 145–176.Google Scholar
13.Cameron, N. Schizophrenic thinking in a problem solving situation. J Ment Sci 1937; 85: 1012–1019.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14.Werner, R. Comparative psychology of mental development. New York: Int Univ Press, 1948.Google Scholar
15.Freud, S. Introductory lectures on psychoanalysis (1916). In: Standard Edition 15. London: Hogarth Press.Google Scholar
16.Bleuler, M. The schizophrenic disorders. New Haven: Yale Univ Press, 1978.Google Scholar
17.Jacobson, E. On psychotic identifications. Int J Psychoanal 1954; 35: 102–108.Google ScholarPubMed
18.Frosch, J. The psychotic process. New York: Int Univ Press, 1983.Google Scholar
19.Freud, S. Family romances (1909). In: Standard Edition 9. London: Hogarth Press.Google Scholar