From Hallucination to Fiction: The Invention of Meaning in Psychosis.

Taking their inspiration from a case history, the authors explore the effects of a writing workshop led by a professional writer for patients in a psychiatric hospital. This workshop allowed different modes of transference to unfold: transference to the analyst-therapist, transference to the writer who led the workshop, and transference to the other members of the group. The writing activity created conditions in which there could be a movement from hallucination to delusion-a delusion expressed in fiction through the act of writing. Psychotic patients 'invent' a writing that remains unfinished and that relates to the experiences of persecution. Writing thus makes it possible for them to tolerate language, through its transformation into writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]