Psychosis – An exploration of traumatic origins.

Psychosis is a breakdown of the establishment of the unitary self – defenses that have been in place to maintain stability and self- organization when environmental failure threatens or is a reality and a reversal of maturational processes of emotional growth results – in fact psychosis is itself another defense; a defense upon a defense.
Winnicott D. W. (1974)
There is a connection between mental functioning and relatedness. When relatedness is threatened by a significant other, one of the results is fragmentation and incoherence, as a result of changes in cognition and emotions – this pathological process is unconscious, provoking guilt and anxiety which leads to primitive functioning –regression, intrusion of misperceptions and hallucinations.
Cameron J. (1965)

There is currently renewed interest in environment and psychotic disorders, including Schizophrenia – the above references around the middle of the last century illustrate that this notion has been around for a long time.
I aim to describe the psychoses; explore the traumatic origins of psychosis, and show that psychotherapy in the Conversational Model can be effectively used in various types of psychotic disorders, along with pharmacotherapy. I will not be talking about Schizophrenia, but rather I will refer to the paranoid, affective and obsessive compulsive psychoses.