Psykose, terapi og humanisme

E-tidsskriftet Pragmatic Case Studies in Psychotherapy 1/2012 inneholder artiklene:

Psychotherapy as a Human Science: Clinical Case Studies Exploring the Abyss of Madness

Empathy and Otherness: Humanistic and Phenomenological Approaches to Psychotherapy of Severe Mental Illness

The Humanity of the Psychotic Patient and the Human Approach by the Therapist: A Relational and Intersubjective Meeting

The Abyss of Madness and Human Understanding

A major theme in Atwood's article is that unlike the usual view of schizophrenic and bipolar symptoms as evidence of a brain disease, i.e., as "outward signs of an inward illness," Atwood views such symptoms as "reactions to such ongoing experiences as devastating abandonment, felt misunderstanding, and re-traumatization" (p. 1-2). In line with this, Atwood argues and illustrates that therapeutic help for individuals with schizophrenic and bipolar symptoms involves entering and understanding their subjective worlds and helping them to navigate within those worlds to work towards more functional lives.