Breaking through Schizophrenia

Wilfried Ver Eecke, PhD, is professor at Georgetown University in the Department of Philosophy and adjunct professor in the Department of Psychology. He has been teaching there since 1967, the year after he had a postdoctoral year at Harvard University, where he studied with Erik Erikson.Ver Eecke edited, translated, and published eight books and close to one hundred articles. His publications have appeared in ten languages. Two of his books are translated into Chinese, and a third is in the process of being translated.

• Foreword by Bertram P. Karon, PhD, ABPPIntroductionPart I: Psycho-Social and Linguistic Complexity of Human Beings as a Basis to Understand Schizophrenia and PsychosisChapter 1: Towards a Philosophy of PsychosisChapter 2: The Subjective Experience of the Person with SchizophreniaChapter 3: Philosophical Questions about the Theory of Psychosis in the Early LacanChapter 4: Paternal Metaphor and Ordinary PsychosisChapter 5: Theoretical and Therapeutic Implications of the Later Lacan’s Complex Theory of PsychosisChapter 6: A Post-Lacanian View on SchizophreniaPart II: Hegel and Lacan on Mental IllnessChapter 7: Hegel as Lacan's Source for Necessity in Psychoanalytic TheoryChapter 8: Hegel and Lacan on Paranoia and the Question of How to Avoid the Dangers Inherent in Ideas of Social ReformPart III: Psychosis and Schizophrenia are Illnesses Marked by a Defective Relationships to LanguageChapter 9: Phenomenology, Linguistic Intentionality, Affectivity and Villemoes’ New Therapy for SchizophrenicsChapter 10: Self-referencing in the Language of the Severely Mentally IllPart IV: Lacan’s Concept of “Paternal Metaphor” Applied to Schreber and HölderlinChapter 11: Reflections on the Concept of “Paternal Metaphor" at the Occasion of Lacan's and Schatzman's analyses of SchreberChapter 12: The Concept of "A-Father" or the Psychological Origin of Mental Breakdown in Schreber and HölderlinPart V: Lacanian Reflections on Successful Talk Therapies with Persons Afflicted with Schizophrenia or Psychosis.Chapter 13: A Lacanian Interpretation of Karon’s Psychoanalytic Treatment of Persons Afflicted with SchizophreniaChapter 14: On Villemoes’ Lacanian Inspired Treatment Method of Persons Afflicted with SchizophreniaChapter 15: On Prouty’s Successful Treatment Method for Persons Afflicted with SchizophreniaConclusion

This is a very impressive work by Wilfied Ver Eecke, bringing together important studies that witness to the worth of a philosophical approach to psychosis and schizophrenia. Ver Eecke is an honored expert on Lacan and a respected interpreter of Hegel and the relevance of his thought to the psychoanalytic situation. Mental illness is seen in developmental terms and not just in terms of genetic or organic factors. We are offered a positive and hopeful orientation to the power of the word in alleviating the distress of the patient. With a significant stress on language, he makes a deft use of Hegel to provide added heft to the themes. The results are very engaging and illuminating, and the voice of Ver Eecke is not only superbly competent in an academic sense but wise in a humane sense.