ABSTRACT
The schizophrenic disorder has as one of its most prominent features the estrangement of the inner world of the self from the social world of others. It would seem that dynamic group psychotherapy, which links the domains of the psychological and the social, would be a logical frame for its study and treatment. The hermit sitting alone in a cave or a hallucinating schizophrenic eschewing relationships with others cannot be helped without appreciation of the group context that spawned his isolation and in which he remains embedded. Schizophrenics are frequently grouped in programmes called "psychosocial" that focus on the delivery of medication, education, and behavioural training. However, the use of the group as both a lens through which to explore the links between group process and the creation of schizophrenia and as a natural medium for treatment of the split 70between the schizophrenic and the group is increasingly neglected in mainstream psychiatry. Why?
