RESUMO
The objective of this paper is to analyze the effectiveness of group therapy to produce psychic change in patients with schizophrenia and other related psychosis. The experience took place in a Public Psychiatric Hospital. It involved 96 patients with this condition who entered different groups from 1998 up to the present. During the year 2000, 66 of them were asked to answer a questionnaire especially designed to investigate the changes that they thought they had gone through during this treatment. On one hand, the results show the high valorization of the group appliance, while on the other hand the most valued operational categories were the facilitation of interpersonal links, the valorization of listening and being listened, the recognition of improvement and the recognition of one's own characteristics in the other person. On account of these discoveries, the mechanisms of these group appliances to produce such changes are postulated. In conclusion, group treatment for schizophrenic patients and related psychosis turns out to be useful for producing psychic changes different from those achieved with psychopharmacological agents.