The Psyche and Schizophrenia offers a remarkably clear and comprehensive treatment of biopsychosocial development and psychotic processes. This extraordinary work lays the theoretical foundation for understanding the relationships between feeling and thinking (affect and logic) in normal as well as in pathological conditions, especially schizophrenia. Ciompi's affective-cognitive theory integrates interpersonal, familial, and social interactions with intrapsychic mental structures and yields startling new insights into the origins of "schizophrenic alienation." While Ciompi acknowledges the important role that genetic and biological models play in schizophrenia, he maintains that it is largely the psychosocial factors that determine long-term prognosis. Thus, The Psyche and Schizophrenia elaborates a number of new therapeutic approaches to the management of biological as well as environmental influences.

Drawing upon Piaget, Freud, and systems theory, as well as advanced current research, Ciompi develops a new model of the normal and pathological functioning of the psyche. This model presents cognition and emotion, the structure of logic and the dynamics of affects, as a complementary system governed by "ubiquitous laws of equilibrium."

In this brilliant synthesis of theoretical and empirical research, Ciompi proposes his novel theory of an "affectlogic" that probes the affective structures of logic as well as the logical structures of the emotions. Original in its conception and elegantly written, The Psyche and Schizophrenia is a major contribution to research on schizophrenia, and its penetrating insights and thorough analysis are sure to enrich the field of psychiatry for years to come.