#8: Schizophrenia

Probably one of the most misunderstood disorders, schizophrenia is characterized by a distorted thought processes that typically leads to paranoia, grandeur delusions, hallucinations, and muffled or slurred speech.   Patients experiencing the disorder typically have trouble communicating with others and are socially dysfunctional. This disorder is seen in .3-.7% of the world population and is commonly confused with dissociative identity disorder.  While the name, looking from the Greek roots, means “split mind”, that is not the case of patients’ personalities, but rather patients have a split thought process when making day to day decisions.  Those diagnosed with this disorder tend experience other psychological disorders such as depression and anxiety disorders.

In 1797, James Tilly Matthews first noted this condition as a patient of his had irrational sporadic behavior that was typically uncontrollable.  In 1853, it was described as a condition that typically affected young adults and teenagers by psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin who also believed it was an early form of dementia caused by a disease of the brain.  The term schizophrenia, though derived from its Greek roots, was first widely used by acclaimed psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in 1908 who wished to describe the symptoms of his patients who experienced split thinking, memory, perception, and personality.  Bleuler felt that they four main symptoms of the disorder were characterized by the four A’s: Autism, Ambivalence, flattened Affect, and impaired Association of images and language.   Bleuler actually discovered that patients were recovering during treatment rather than deteriorating so he concluded that it was not a form of dementia that is characterized by the opposite.  Though his term was confusing to many since they associated “split mind” with split personality, it has later been clarified that while patients might hear distinct voices or see certain personalities, the patients themselves do not change their voices rather it is all a battle within the mind.  Said “battle” has in many ways created a dystopic world for many patients who experience a world of constant fear of persecution.  

The following video talks about the disorder from the perspective of an actual patient diagnosed with the disorder.

Works Cited:

Heinrichs RW. “Historical origins of schizophrenia: two early madmen and their illness”. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. 2003;39(4):349–63

Spitzer, Robert L. DSM-IV-TR Casebook: a Learning Companion to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Pub., 2002. Print.

Stotz-Ingenlath, Gabriele. "Epistemological Aspects of Eugen Bleuler's Conception of Schizophrenia in 1911." Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 3.2 (2000): 153-59. Print.