["Psychological defense" as a compensation mechanism and its significance in the psychotherapy of schizophrenia].

The concept of pyschological compensation as an essential aspect of the patient's attempts at adaptation is established, without the consideration of which it is impossible to work out a theory of personality-centered therapy. Some characteristics of psychological compensation in schizophrenia are considered on the basis of V. N. Myasishtchev's theory of relations. F. V. Bassin's and Roshnov's concepts of "psychological defense". The great importance of the clinical method used for determining such processes and the risk of errors involved in "understanding psychopathology" and "psychodynamic psychiatry" are underscored.