Schizophrenia

Abstract

New methods of physical treatment introduced during the last decade have revived the general interest in schizophrenia, the “Cinderella of psychiatry” (Ellery, 1941). The fact that schizophrenic symptoms can be influenced by crude physical means such as convulsions, hypoglycaemia or operations on the brain has directed the attention to the bodily disturbances underlying the psychological symptoms. The need for accurate assessment of results of these treatments has also revived the interest in prognosis. Kraepelin, who, in 1896, “by a streak of genius” (Adolf Meyer) unified varied clinical pictures in what he called dementia praecox and considered it a disease entity, never doubted its causation by a brain process of organic nature. Nor did Bleuler, when he tentatively proposed the term “schizophrenias” for approximately the same group of cases in 1911 in which he found a common primary psychological disturbance. Those interested in the meanings of “splitting” as expressed by the term schizophrenia will find a discussion of possible misunderstandings in an article by Lewin (1939).