Abstract
People caught in the agony of addiction and the grip of psychosis need to find new ways of coping with the demands of reality and staying alive. This chapter deals with the struggles of a patient who is manic depressive, was addicted to alcohol, other drugs and food. Keeping him alive and separating him from his submissive attitudes, psychotic past and suicidal behavior was the treatment challenge. Such patientsmust learn to use the therapeutic situation to claim their own power. They must give up the need to diementally and physicaly. To win the battle against the psychotic process and the addictive defense both therapist and patient need to find the courage to look at past traumas. They must then be creative enough to find new ways of living out life in the present. Even the most disturbed of people can grow emotionally as a new understanding of self and reality emerges in the treatment process. The psychotic past finally becomes a thing past.
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