Vulnerability to Psychosis: A Psychoanalytic Study of the Nature and Therapy of the Psychotic State

Author(s): Franco De Masi

Psychoses

'Franco De Masi is well known for his psychoanalytic work with patients suffering psychotic illnesses. In this book, De Masi addresses the human vulnerability to psychosis, but the modest title of his book belies the depth of its investigations and conclusions. De Masi invites the reader into a thoughtful, systematic exploration of many aspects of the complex problems associated with psychotic illnesses: its ontogenesis and the emotional crises that lead to the dominance of psychotic thinking, the function of psychosis with regard to reality, its eruption or progression (depending upon the type of psychosis involved) and, crucially, the difficult and painstaking task of treatment.This latter theme is explored in considerable detail by De Masi and is perhaps the most telling message of this book. Example after example of his engagement with patients illuminates his central objective - the gradual disinvestment by the patient of psychic energy allocated to ostensibly protective, but ultimately self-destructive, psychotic constructions and a re-investment in neurotic or more normal psychicreality - a world the patient has had to largely forsaken under the sway of delusion...This is a relatively small book, but one that is large in scope and substantial in content.


Product Information

General Fields

  • : 9781855755048
  • : 89821
  • : 89821
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Franco De Masi
  • : Paperback