Oh ye of little faith :-)

What makes you think that intensive therapy cannot work for many people? Perhaps people really can become quite well, be fully free of schizophrenia, have normal lives with fulfilling careers and loving relationships.

One thing you are correct about - some family support, money, and safe living situation is needed. The lack of these things can ruin an effort to help someone.

This particular interview with Lloyd is of course anecdotal. But stronger evidence is provided by meta-analyses such as this:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

In which over 2600 psychotic people from 37 studies were greatly helped by therapy.

There are also larger scale studies in Gaetano Benedetti (Psychotherapy of Schizophrenia), Roberta Siani (in Martindale's Psychosis - Psychological Approaches and their Effectiveness), and the CBT therapists in Britain such as Morrison and Bateman. Many people are unaware of this work.

Lastly, if you doubt the type of accounts Lloyd shares, let me recommend the books Rethinking Madness (Williams), Treating the Untreatable (Steinman), Weathering the Storms (Steinman), The Infantile Psychotic Self (Volkan), and the Regressed Patient (Boyer). They are all on Amazon used. In these books are about 50 further cases detailing the process by which schizophrenic people can fully recover or significantly improve.