New Insights in the Psychotherapy of Adolescent Schizophrenics

Abstract

“Am I crazy?” Asked a psychotic patient when he first came to see us. He had come at the request of his parents for consultation about the indications for psychotherapy. The 25-year-old man had been affected by a psychosis for 6 months, during the course of which time he had developed a delusion of grandeur; he identified himself with God, with Napoleon, with Robert Kennedy, but also with the sky, the North Star and a big lorry (an obvious phallic symbol). He believed that an extraordinary woman, Laura, whom he had casually known some years before, would come to him and make him happy forever.