Psychotherapy of schizophrenia in dynamic psychiatric view

The essentials of Gunter Ammon's school of Dynamic Psychiatry are reported. Schizophrenia according to Ammon (1979) has its origin "in an unsuccessful demarcation from infantile symbiosis with socialenergetic groupdynamic disturbances within the primary group" (translation by the redaction), so that the child was not supported but behindered in the development of his ego-demarcation and human functions by his mother and social environment. The child was rejected openly or unconsciously. Family dynamics were characterized by a refusal of body contact, of giving time and of talking with the child, by an hostile and double-bind atmosphere, the child being made responsible for the parents' feelings like anxiety, rage and guilt, by forbidding contacts and relationships outside the family. The development of human structure is seen in a groupdynamic dependency of social environment. The members of the family group themselves are determined by their childhood families' dynamics (Ammon 1991).