Coping Style and Cognitive Dysfunction in Schizophrenic Patients

Abstract

It is important to know how people with a schizophrenic disorder experience their cognitive vulnerability and how that experience affects their daily lives. Rehabilitation, as we understand it, has the aim of stimulating patients to make the best use of their residual capacities, especially in dealing with social complexity. Unfortunately, the rehabilitation approach in psychiatry still lacks a firm scientific basis. Strong links need to be developed between the practice of rehabilitation and theories of basic cognitive and behavioural dysfunction in schizophrenic patients (Watts & Bennett, 1983). It is a prerequisite that the subjective experiences of patients are included in this endeavour: schizophrenia is an ‘I am’ illness (Estroff, 1989).