Too often the patient's bizarre behavior drives the therapist away, especially when the illness intrudes on the patient's ability to use ordinary human communication. This problem can be so frustrating to both patient and therapist that each is unable to respond to the potential inherent in the therapeutic encounter. Therapists most often adopt this stance because they are not familiar with these problems and how to work with them. Few training institutions encourage therapists to engage the patient with schizophrenia in a humanistic way, so that a sense of relatedness can be established. Preparing the patient for treatment using Direct Confrontation psychotherapy helps the therapist understand and quickly overcome the patient's psychological barriers to treatment.
Treatment can begin with the rapid disruption of the patient's defensive patterns.