From the author: The problem of a person who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia is an unequivocal denial of the fact of mental illness. The patient thinks that this was an accident, it was because he was tired, overworked, overtrained, overworked, over-rested - there are a lot of reasons why psychosis occurred. Plausible explanations are found and after that they claim that it will never happen again because it was an accident. The relevance of psychotherapy for schizophrenia is determined by the need of psychiatric patients to develop social skills to maintain a normal level of social functioning in the family and at work. State mental health centers are also interested in reducing costs per patient and increasing the efficiency of their work, which is reflected in reducing the frequency of hospitalizations and increasing opportunities for social rehabilitation. The main objectives of group psychotherapy for schizophrenia are: preventing isolation of patients in society and autism, developing a critical attitude towards the disease and deactualization of psychotic experiences. The literature also highlights that psychotherapy may potentiate the antipsychotic effects of biological treatments. The role of psychotherapy is shown in the prevention of the phenomena of intra-hospital hospitalism, which are often observed in modern rehabilitation departments for the mentally ill. [3] The first problem that a group analyst faces when working with patients with schizophrenia who are undergoing inpatient treatment in a psychiatric hospital is the time factor. The fact is that the usual length of hospitalization is on average 40-50 days, and patients are often in acute condition in the first two weeks. During this period they receive biological treatment and are not invited to the group. Thus, during their stay in hospital, taking into account that the frequency of group sessions is 1-2 times a week, patients attend the group from 2 to 8 sessions. During group psychotherapy, the group analyst is faced with a contradiction between the need for long-term long-term psychotherapy of such patients and the reality of hospital conditions or the reality of the course of the disease, in that the patient actually receives, at best, short-term psychotherapy. [8] The next problem that arises in psychotherapy for schizophrenia is the problem of the therapist’s countertransference to such patients, which is expressed in drowsiness, boredom, a feeling of heaviness, crushedness, aggression, hatred, and suppression of the psycho-emotional state. [2,5]. Thus, the second contradiction arises between the desire of the psychotherapist to help, to be useful, to fulfill the role of a psychotherapist, and those emotional reactions that a group of mentally ill people causes in the psyche of a psychotherapist, those negative emotional reactions that a group of mentally ill people causes in life, the personality of the psychotherapist himself. The third contradiction in psychotherapy for schizophrenia in a hospital is expressed in the fact that these patients, while in a hospital setting, function in a large group, department and in the hospital as a whole, which has its own rules. Thus, there is a contradiction between the rules of the large group in which they function and the rules of the small group in which they receive therapy. What complicates the situation is that inside the hospital, patients are in close interaction, stay in the same wards, and inpatients also have their own internal groups and internal relationships. For example, in a hospital, there are two clear models of behavior: coercers who have served time in prison and simply patients who are in the hospital voluntarily. Thus, the third contradiction is expressed in the fact that the small psychotherapeutic group functions within the body of a large group of the department and the hospital as a whole, and on the other hand, patients are still constantly in other intra-ward groups, inspontaneous organized groups of patients. Thus, the main contradiction in the work of a psychoanalytic group in a psychiatric hospital is that psychotherapy takes place in the hospital from two to eight sessions and this norm is imposed by the conditions of inpatient treatment. Group members become members because they are inpatients. And by and large, the psychotherapist is also part of a large hospital group. [9] The subject of the study is one and a half years of experience in the functioning of a psychoanalytic group when working with mental disorders in a psychiatric hospital. The main hypothesis of the study is that psychotherapy for schizophrenics is possible, it works, even in short-term therapy. Counterhypothesis, i.e. on the contrary, the fact that it does not work, and vice versa is harmful, group or psychoanalytic treatment of patients with schizophrenia in a hospital setting is harmful, has a negative impact on the recovery process, the socialization of such patients, etc. In our study, we used the methodology of a formative experiment and analysis of individual case. To do this, in the study we took the experience of functioning of a psychoanalytic group in a psychiatric hospital. The theoretical concepts that we relied on in the work of forming this experiment. The first basic theory is the therapeutic group theory, i.e. this is Bion [1], Faulks, Yalom [11], Karvasarsky. Description of the experimental study. The group was opened in December 2009 in a psychiatric hospital. All participants were inpatient treatment with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Syndromic diagnosis: hallucinatory-delusional, psychopathic. Autistic patients and patients with catatonic symptoms were not included in the group. All male participants, many of them disabled people of the second group due to mental illness, were repeatedly hospitalized in a hospital. Among the participants there were several patients undergoing compulsory treatment (murder, drugs). The group opened with 8 participants. Six months later, the number of participants was reduced to 6 people. The average age of patients ranged from 18 to 50 years and there was one patient who was 72 years old. Patients in compulsory treatment are those few patients who attended group therapy the longest, ranging from 19 sessions to 48 sessions. From December 2009 to April 2010 the group worked once a week for 90 minutes. In April 2010, a co-therapist - a psychologist - was introduced into the group. The setting was changed to twice a week and the duration of the sessions became 75 minutes, i.e. reduced from 90 to 75 minutes. Until January 2011, the group worked twice a week for 75 minutes. Since January 2011. The group works once a week for 75 minutes. During the experiment, we changed the duration of the session from 60 to 90 minutes. During the experiment, 75 minutes turned out to be optimal. A preliminary conversation was held with each applicant for group therapy, the essence of group therapy and the rules of group therapy were explained. A mandatory condition for entering a new participant is the consent of the patient himself. Group psychotherapy was conducted under the supervision of an experienced psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and group analyst. Therapists who teach under supervision have much fewer mistakes and gain positive experience faster. “Without ongoing supervision and analysis, initial errors are reinforced simply by repetition.” [11] Within the group during the year, the main topic of discussion among participants was aggression towards family, friends, and medical personnel, dissatisfaction with hospitalization, criticism of drug treatment, and the attitude of relatives towards them. The feeling of being mentally ill outside the hospital, and that their relatives treat them as inferior members of the family. Patients within the group were focused on the leader and told not each other, but the therapist. Moreover, when a co-therapist was introduced into the group, they ignored him and still turned to the group leader. There was no direct communication within the group; the patients did not talk to each other. Approximatelyafter a year, the patients began to turn to each other, clearly remembered the rules of the group, tried not to interrupt each other, stopped each other and turned to each other. The topic of discussion also changed: they began to talk about themselves, about their past experiences, about their lives, some humor appeared in the stories, aggression disappeared. Then the theme of sex, love, the relationship between a man and a woman appeared. The main countertransference since the beginning of the group’s work has been boredom, the desire to sleep, a feeling of being crushed, heaviness. The leader of the group experienced psychosomatization for a long time. Then there was a desire to run away, being inside the group, I wanted to get up and leave the group. With the arrival of the co-therapist came the awareness of countertransference feelings that they existed. There was an opportunity to see the group from the outside, being inside the group. A natural division has occurred: doctors are bad, and psychologists are good. The splitting of the presenters into good and bad led to an improvement in the symptoms of the leading therapist himself. Those. these unbearable feelings became bearable. It is easier to be just bad than to be very good and very bad at the same time. Working in co-therapy also has the advantage that two doctors, having united, have two points of view, which “promotes the emergence of more intuitive guesses and expands the range of strategies.” [eleven]. It is known from world society that it is better to work with psychotic patients with a couple of therapists, so that it is easier for patients to split therapists into a good and a bad object. [eleven]. Then it is easier for the patients themselves to be aware of their projections onto the group leader, and it is easier for the group leaders to recognize the emotional states that are caused by patients with schizophrenia. All these counter-transferential feelings continue to exist now, but awareness of them and speaking in the group allows the leader to be active. One of the ideas of psychotherapy for psychotics is that the psychotherapist needs to survive and show that he can endure these terrible, strong feelings of aggression, fear, the desire to kill, dismember and at the same time survive. “I would not work with a schizophrenic,” a supervisor once told me, “if I were not ready to be eaten alive.” [10] The medical staff of the department treated group therapy without obvious interest, rather as a whim of the department doctor. The group found itself opposed to all other patients and medical staff. The group of patients was called a “circle of the elite.” Which unexpectedly greatly increased the patients’ motivation to participate in group therapy. The practice of group psychotherapy in a psychiatric hospital. Unlike group therapy with neurotics, the learning factor prevails in the group of psychotics. “psychotics often need to be clearly explained that feelings are natural reactions.” [7] The therapist uses the technique of emotional description of the state with psychotic patients, i.e. literally describes the state that the patient is currently experiencing. [7,10] For example, “the reason for hospitalization was your condition, this is a state of irritation and aggression. Your aggression scares people." [7,10] The leader of a group with psychotics, in contrast to working with neurotics, must be open, sincere, and able to describe his emotions at any time. It is important to voice your feelings, your emotions: “I do everything to make the patient feel at ease, like with an ordinary person.” [7] That is When working with neurotics, the usual therapist is closed. The therapist tries to maintain an equidistant position from all participants and does not reveal his inner world in order to give them the opportunity to open up. [1,11] It is more like the therapist maintaining an empty space, such as a bottle, into which patients can pour their feelings. And with psychotics, he must first pour it, and then show that this is what you have, i.e. pour your fortune into a bottle and show that you have it. A psychotherapist needs to be open, truthful, and sincere. Aggression directed at medical personnel, at drug treatment, at relatives, it is important to withstand, givean opportunity for them to express it. The reality of a psychiatric hospital is that these are bars on the windows, this is the absence of doors, this is medical staff intruding into the lives of patients. Patients go to the group because this is “the place where the door closes and you can be yourself and not see that anyone is watching you.” [from personal statements of patients]. Speaking in the words of the patients themselves, over these one and a half years the group has become a “light hour”, which takes place once a week, where they feel safe, where they can express their feelings, their thoughts, and they can be understood without condemnation. Those. there is some kind of safe place for patients where they can just be. Where they are not patients, but just people. Where they are treated not as schizophrenics, disabled people, inferior sections of society, but as a person who can be happy, upset, aggressive, experience fear, anxiety. The group has become a place where patients can connect their disparate experiences of functioning at home, in the hospital, between discharges into some kind of unified whole. The main problem of personality disintegration in such patients is that the personality experience is defragmented, torn into separate pieces, and the group, to some extent, serves as such a place for integrating various parts between normal functioning and psychosis. [10] Conclusion. Basic experience of one and a half years of conducting a psychoanalytic group in a psychiatric hospital, maintaining a psychoanalytic long-term group with an open end is possible, and possible under certain conditions. Firstly, the time factor must be taken into account. The group operates as a short-term group and, therefore, does not set global goals. You can set quite achievable, real-life goals in describing the emotional state of such patients. Secondly, the presenter needs to be open and active. If it is possible to conduct such groups with a co-therapist, then it is advisable to conduct such groups with a co-therapist. But if this is not possible, even a short-term introduction of a co-therapist can greatly change the situation, i.e. show splitting, which also has a beneficial effect on the group and on the leader of the group, on his ability to think creatively, act, and remain in a normal state. Thirdly, it is important to conduct the group under the supervision of a psychiatrist who has experience in managing a group of psychotics. Fourth, the group psychotherapy relationship within the hospital must be taken into account. The psychotherapist needs to at least explain to the staff and management about the importance of the group, and at least have them not resist the group process. Fifthly, this is the personal experience of a psychiatrist. The group’s work gives a new look at the internal picture, at the psychology of schizophrenia. And accordingly, the attitude towards patients changes, which again has a beneficial effect on the treatment process as a whole. The experience of one and a half years of running a psychoanalytic group with patients with schizophrenia in a psychiatric hospital shows that work in the short term gives its real results, and for some patients it can function as a long-term therapy. References: Bion, Winfried R., 1948. Erfahrungen in Gruppen. Stuttgart (Klett), 1977. Winnicott D. Hatred in countertransference. /The Era of Countertransference: An Anthology of Psychoanalytic Research (1949-1999)/ Compiled, scientifically ed. I.Yu. Romanova.- M.: Academic Avenue, 2005. – 576 p. Karvasarsky B.D. Group psychotherapy. M. Medicine. 1990. Kernberg O.F. Aggression in personality disorders. M.: NF "Class", Yu 2001.- 368 p. Kernberg Otto. Notes on countertransference. /The Era of Countertransference: An Anthology of Psychoanalytic Research (1949-1999)/ Compiled, scientifically ed. I.Yu. Romanova. - M.: Academic Avenue, 2005. - 576 p. Kernberg Otto. 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