The fear of understanding schizophrenia and the avoidance of the acutely disturbed student

Although it is generally believed that a treatment that is more effective than its alternatives will be used, psychological treatments for schizophrenic and other psychotic reactions have been avoided despite the evidence of their effectiveness from the time of "moral treatment" to the present. Less effective (or even destructive) treatments have been seized upon, in part because they do not require understanding patients. Understanding them means facing facts about ourselves, our families, and our society that we do not want to know, or, in the case of repressed feelings and experiences, do not want to know again. This reluctance to understand is particularly tragic in the case of the acutely disturbed college student, whose crisis may lead either to reorganization at a higher level of functioning and growth or to a wasted life. The central role of terror in producing symptoms and the genesis and handling of symptoms, including delusions and hallucinations, are briefly discussed.