Open Dialogue & Institutional Psychotherapy: the policy of Early Psychosis Intervention

Open Dialogue (OD), as developed in Finland from the eighties on of the past century by Jaakko Seikkula, is a polyphony of network based and language founded theory and practice. It is specially focused on the early psychosis... [ view full abstract ]

Open Dialogue (OD), as developed in Finland from the eighties on of the past century by Jaakko Seikkula, is a polyphony of network based and language founded theory and practice. It is specially focused on the early psychosis treatment. In the meanwhile it has proved its value for the treatment of psychosis as such.

Institutional Psychotherapy (IP), as developed in France from the fifties on of the past century by founders like Jean Oury focuses on working through and preventing psychotic alienation. Therefore one of the mottos of IP is ‘treating the patient is treating the hospital’. 

Nowadays the hospitality of the hospital has to be integrated with the open dialogue with community care. Germs of OD can be found within the IP approach. ‘Tolerance of uncertainty’, leaving the dialogue in openness and as a process are examples of this proposition.                                                                        Germs of IP can be found in the OD approach. The work on preserving singularity in the ‘Collectif’ - as will be explained in the oral presentation - is an example of this. 

Most important are the ethical political consequences of these approaches. In this way the micropolitics of OD have to be amplified with the core metaphor of the crystal principle as developed by Freud. As will be explained in the oral presentation this metaphor leads to a paradigm shift regarding psychiatry and its stigma.