Outpatient Treatment of Psychosis

'This volume is so very rare because it works as a passionate document for our times, demanding reform (political, social, therapeutic) critical to the resolution of psychotic disorders. It is a work that comes out of the starting blocks full speed ahead and its urgency and acuity gives the contemporary reader what is needed to be up to date in the battle - and that is what it is - to liberate millions of human beings from the senseless incarcerations imposed by decades of misguided "treatments" of psychotic selves. I hope it lands on the desks not only of clinicians, but politicians, judges and attorneys, journalists, and those invested with a duty of care to the most vulnerable people in our midst.'- Christopher Bollas, author of When the Sun Bursts'This book has a morally compelling message and fills a critical need. Despite perceptions that all people who struggle with psychosis are in hospitals, institutional day programs, or homeless shelters, many are treated effectively as outpatients. Despite a scarcity of helpful literature, most psychotherapists work with at least a few people who suffer psychotic anguish. The wisdom, practical reflection, and therapeutic passion that pervade this book are long overdue and welcome. I recommend it to all therapists and students of therapy, irrespective of their discipline and theoretical orientation.'- Nancy McWilliams, PhD, ABPP, Visiting Full Professor, Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, and author of Psychoanalytic Diagnosis'Outpatient Treatment of Psychosis challenges the medical-scientific narrative that the treatment of choice for psychosis is with medications and evidence-based therapies. This esteemed group of scholars and clinicians step into the void created by the disappearance of the community mental health centre to offer the private practitioner's office as a new space for people with psychotic experiences to come and speak in a confidential therapeutic discourse. Grounded in rich clinical vignettes, each chapter is premised on the radical idea that psychotic symptoms have rhythm and rhyme, and meaning and purpose. This book presents a variety of contrasting theoretical models in working with people looking for viable alternatives to a regime of medicine and pseudo-scientific approaches. It is, at once, informative and inspirational, revolutionary and refreshing, and respectful of the people who come to engage in a very human discourse of understanding.'- Patrick B. Kavanaugh, author of Stories from the Bog: On Madness, Philosophy, and Psychoanalysis'This book shares many years of experience in the outpatient treatment of psychosis. It will be a useful resource for therapists.'- Bertram P. Karon, PhD, ABPP, author of Psychotherapy of Schizophrenia