Ideology and science in the individual psychotherapy of schizophrenia.

The efficacy of individual psychotherapy for acute schizophrenics has been the source of controversy for many decades. Discussion of the scientific issues, such as design, methodology, and assessment, has been clouded by strong ideological conflicts. The relative value of drugs and psychotherapy for schizophrenics has been the subject of tension and dispute between various psychiatric schools--psychoanalytic, interpersonal, biological, and behavioral. The Psychotherapy of Schizophrenia Project is discussed in terms of the mixture of scientific and ideological issues.