Abstract

Understanding the meaning of symptoms in the context of individual life events would be a significant contribution to psychoanalytic theoretical concepts and knowledge in treating schizophrenic patients. Although schizophrenic patients differ significantly, their symptoms can usually be understood as a defence from unbearable experiences. Conscious and unconscious meanings of experience are a derivative of the inner world of the individual, which is also formed of life experiences; most of them come from the early childhood when the feeling of self and identity begins to develop. The ability to understand the symptoms and behaviour of schizophrenic patients by applying psychodynamic theories and knowledge as well as participation in the psychotherapeutic process provides clinicians with a platform for a complete insight into psychodynamics and functioning of a person suffering from schizophrenia and also contributes to adequate planning of therapeutic interventions and treatment process as a whole. This paper presents a long-term group process with chronic schizophrenic patients and the development of understanding of the psychotic symptoms in one member.