SOME SUGGESTIONS TO INTEGRATE THE SELF-DISORDER HYPOTHESIS OF SCHIZOPHRENIA

We know very little about the origin and the development of self-disorders. Are they supposed to be the direct outcome of some built-in genetic anomaly? Can interpersonal contacts contribute to destructure, or further destructure, a vulnerable self? Which kind of traumatic situations are involved? Are there factors of resilience that can be ascribed to positive interpersonal relations? In short: Can self-disorders be inscribed into the life-history of the schizophrenic person? The is- sue of the personal history of self-disorders need to be explored at the research level. If, and only if, self-disorders can be construed as situated in a personal-historical, as well as a relational-interpersonal context, then they can become instrumental for psychotherapeutic, especially phenomenological-dynamic, treatment —rather than foster a new therapeutic pessimism