Going blind to see: The psychoanalytic treatment of trauma, regression and psychosis

Abstract

I describe the analytic treatment of Mr. C, a highly intelligent man who began therapy claiming to have schizophrenia. He entered treatment on the verge of suicide, convinced of his utter isolation, and gradually, he confronted his lifelong paranoia, and learned to trust his analyst and the therapeutic process. Among his embodied realizations was the remarkable insight that paranoia kept him anchored to the world, attached to others, and thus, offset schizophrenic detachment. Paranoia also helped him maintain an optimal distance from others who could hurt him or discover his "true nature." Then, after six years and much hard work, Mr. C faced a confluence of factors that initiated the reactivation of childhood trauma and a regressive psychosis that threatened his life, his relationships, and all he had built in therapy. The journey through his six-month long psychosis was one of the greatest challenges he and I ever faced together.