To the Editor.鈥�听
We read with interest the article by Breier and Strauss entitled "Self-control in Psychotic Disorders."1 For more than three years, we have conducted a homogeneous therapy group for schizophrenic inpatients in a short-term psychiatric unit.2-4 Like Breier and Strauss, we have been impressed with the ability of many of our patients to control psychotic aspects of their disease. This has been most apparent in the area of auditory hallucinations. The patients best able to cope have been those with long histories of schizophrenia who have learned what seems to help them through trial and error.Of the three self-control methods described by Breier and Strauss, we have found self-instruction to be the least common, although one patient found that he could "out shout" the voices and "order them to stop" when they became unbearable. We have observed the other two methods (reducing or increasing involvement in