Breaking through Schizophrenia: Lacan and Hegel for Talk Therapy

Breaking through Schizophrenia builds on the ideas of Jacques Lacan who argued that schizophrenia is a deficient relationship to language, in particular the difficulty to master the metaphoric dimension of language, which children acquire by the Oedipal restructuring of the psyche. This book is thus a countercultural move to present a less damaging view and a more efficient treatment method for schizophrenic persons. Through a collection of published and unpublished articles, Ver Eecke traces the path of Lacanian thought. He discusses the importance of language for the development of human beings and examines the effectiveness of talk therapy through case studies with schizophrenic persons.

About the Author

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.