TY - JOUR AU - Karon, Bertram P. PY - 2008/02/10 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - An "Incurable" Schizophrenic: The Case of Mr. X JF - Pragmatic Case Studies in Psychotherapy JA - PCSP VL - 4 IS - 1 SE - Case Study DO - 10.14713/pcsp.v4i1.923 UR - https://pcsp.nationalregister.org/index.php/pcsp/article/view/923 SP - pp. 1-24 AB - <div class="Section1"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black">Mr. X, a schizophrenic, was evaluated by all his psychiatrists as &ldquo;incurable&rdquo; after several years of unsuccessful outpatient and two months of inpatient treatment, both with medications.<span>&nbsp; </span>Electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) was strongly but pessimistically recommended.<span>&nbsp; </span>He was not eating, not sleeping, and continuously hallucinating.<span>&nbsp; </span>He began outpatient psychoanalytic therapy.<span>&nbsp; </span>All medications were stopped.<span>&nbsp; </span>After three days he began eating.<span>&nbsp; </span>After four months he began working at an intellectually demanding job. After two years he could be assured that he would never be psychotic again under normal stresses.<span>&nbsp; </span>But that was not good enough for him.<span>&nbsp; </span>He kept raising new issues: problems in living, difficulties writing his first book, psychosomatic problems, problems in enjoying ordinary pleasures, marital problems, undoing problems he had caused his son.<span>&nbsp; </span>The total treatment took 14 years.&nbsp; More than 20 years after the completion of treatment the patient sent a note indicating his continued professional accomplishments and thanking the therapist for &ldquo;giving me my life back.&rdquo;</span></p> </div> ER -