From Breakdown to Breakthrough

As a clear and user-friendly guide for clinicians who work with patients affected by psychosis, this book challenges the false notion that psychosis is untreatable through talk therapy.

The authors contend that since psychotic symptoms are features of survival adaptation, they naturally serve as a valuable source of information, providing clues about the origins of people's psychic derailment along with a path to its cure. The authors advise therapists not only to read and respond to the messages embedded in the symptoms, but also to recognize and utilise the non-psychotic aspects of the patient in facilitating recovery. The overall aim is to recruit the patient as a collaborator in their treatment, thus wresting a meaningful and redemptive narrative from the psychotic experience. All aspects and phases of treatment - from initial encounters through the middle phase to termination, and even supervision - are covered in this volume.

Abundant with clinical examples, theoretical and technical points, and treatment methods, this book is essential reading for all psychotherapists, psychoanalysts, and other mental health clinicians working with psychosis.

Danielle Knafo, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst with expertise in the treatment of psychosis. During her tenure as professor at LIU's Clinical Psychology Doctoral program for 22 years, she chaired a concentration on serious mental illness. She is faculty and supervisor at NYU's Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis. She has written and lectured extensively on psychoanalysis, trauma, and psychosis.

Michael Selzer, M.D., is a psychiatrist who directed the Schizophrenia Division at NY Hospital, Westchester Division. He was also clinical associate professor at NY Downstate Medical Center, where he was director of medical education in psychiatry. He has taught and written about the treatment of psychosis and borderline personality disorder.