Sense of Self: Schizophrenia and I

1211 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: What are the impacts of schizophrenia on the individual family and

Sense of Self: Schizophrenia and I

In 1911, a Swiss psychiatrist named Eugen Bleuler coined the term "schizophrenia." It originated from the Greek words, schizo, which translates to "split" and phrenia, meaning "mind." When Bleuler conveyed the meaning of this term, it was not to label a person as a "split personality," but rather as a split between what is believed, what is perceived, and what is objectively real (1). Throughout history, the disorder has been confused and misunderstood by the general public. The idea of "split" has led people to equate schizophrenia with multiple personality disorder which is a psychiatric condition that is different and much less common. Bleuler did not want to label schizophrenia as the disorder where a person is split into two personalities; instead he wanted to explain that in schizophrenia, there is a splitting away of the personality from reality.

Schizophrenia is a disorder that affects about 1 in 100 people at different stages in their lives and is very difficult to diagnose. It has many symptoms that typically begin to appear around age 18-30 (2). Signs of Schizophrenia can be misread and sometimes overlooked due to the amount of other disorders that share many of the symptoms. Autism is one example. Symptoms can be classified into "negative" and "positive." Negative symptoms could be seen as those that are absent but should be present. Examples of negative symptoms include lack of motivation or apathy, blunted feelings, depression, and social withdrawal (1). Positive symptoms are those that should be present but are absent. Some examples of positive symptoms are hallucinations, delusions, thought disorder, and an altered sense of self (1). It is thought that hallucinations are the...

... middle of paper ...

...eflects their "character" and stands for the thing that makes a person "complete" and "separate," then does that mean that a person feels that who they are has changed when they have this disorder? This question leads to the way that this disorder alters one's "sense of self," by making the individual and those who are close to him or her question the one thing that makes each person unique, their self.

WWW Sources and Other Sources

1)Schizophrenia

http://www.mentalhealth.com/book/p40-sc01.html#Head_4

2)Schizophrenia

http://www.bixler.com/

3)Flexner, Stuart Berg. The Random House Dictionary: Concise Edition. New York: Random House, 1980.

4)Schizophrenia

http://www.mentalhealth.com/mag1/p5h-sc05.html

5) C-Sections Urged for Schizophrenia -prone Mothers

http://www.mentalhealth.com/mag1/p51-sc03.html

6)Schizophrenia

http://www.bixler.com/

Show More
Related

  • Tender is the Night

    1132 Words  | 3 Pages

    The labor which accompanied Fitzgerald’s fourth novel was not anticipated by the author. He had first envisioned Tender is the Night to be “something really new in form, idea, and structure—the model for the age that Joyce and Stein are searching for, that Conrad didn’t find”(Scribner 1). But disease, relative poverty, and heartbreak plagued Fitzgerald and repeatedly interrupted his work on the novel.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Foreshadowing In Tender Is The Night

    1215 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Life is essentially a cheat and its conditions are those of defeat; the redeeming things are not happiness and pleasure but the deeper satisfactions that come out of struggle”- F. Scott Fitzgerald. Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald published in 1934, Tender is the Night is a novel about wealth and prosperity and the breakdown of love and marriage. Fitzgerald uses foreshadowing, symbolism, imagery and tone to emphasize that human frailty leads to downfall.

    Read More

  • Schizophrenia in The Center Cannot Hold by Elyn Saks

    1573 Words  | 4 Pages

    (Kanahara, et al., p. 1)” Conclusion Schizophrenia is the most severe of all the psychotic disorders. Sak’s states “.it’s not ‘split personality,’ although the two are often confused by the public; the schizophrenic mind is not split, but shattered. (Saks, p. 328)”

    Read More

  • Essay On Birth Control By Margaret Sanger

    575 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the whole of the 21st century, the subject of birth control has become a trending topic throughout various news reports. The debate on whether or not birth control should be required and distributed by all health plans has caused much controversy throughout the population. However, there was a time in our history when contraceptives, much less birth control, was available for the public. It was through the perseverance and determination of Margaret Sanger to make birth control legal for all women that it is accessible worldwide today. She was the leader of the birth control movement, which was conceived during the Progressive era of United States history.

    Read More

  • Schizophrenia and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

    775 Words  | 2 Pages

    There is still no unanimously accepted definition of schizophrenia, and appreciable differences exist between the narrowest and widest definition (Tsuang 13). It is a disease that includes a disturbance in cognition that renders the individual "out of touch with reality". Emotions are distorted in schizophrenia and they are typified by being socially withdrawn (Lahey 555).

    Read More

  • Marilyn Monroe

    1628 Words  | 4 Pages

    Marilyn Monroe was liked by many, society liked her for the sheer fact that she never portrayed herself as famous, but as a human. She was the epiphany of Hollywoods misguided. She created this noble character that people admired, they also admired her f...

    Read More

  • Morality Of Birth Control Rhetorical Analysis

    1492 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sanger organizes her argument by first presenting a series of questions that were sent out to “the most eminent men and women in the world.” These questions pertained to the opinions of these men and women on the topic of how birth control and awareness could potentially affect their society. She then talks about the

    Read More

  • Norma to Marilyn: The Evolution of a Sex Symbol

    1059 Words  | 3 Pages

    Marilyn was born as Norma Jeane Mortensen on June 1, 1926. She was born in Los Angeles, California to her mother Gladys Pearl Baker, but she never knew who her father was. When Marilyn’s mother was institutionalized, she was put into foster care; through most of her early years, she was either in foster care or an orphanage. When she got a little older, she moved in with Grace and Doc Goddard, a very religious and stern couple. They shielded Marilyn and would not let her go to the movies. After living with them for a few years, the Goddard family moved to the East Coast and they were unable to bring Marilyn with them. She was then sent back into foster care, where she had a tremendously rough time. Marilyn was sexually assaulted and she wanted to get out of foster care as soon as possible. To accomplish this, she knew she needed to get married (BIO. Marylin Monroe).

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Strategies Used in The Morality of Birth Control Speech by Margaret Sanger

    974 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sanger, Margaret. "The Morality of Birth Control." Gifts of Speech. Smith College, 2012. Web. 15 Dec. 2013.

    Read More

  • Schizophrenia

    1137 Words  | 3 Pages

    Schizophrenia is a serious, chronic mental disorder characterized by loss of contact with reality and disturbances of thought, mood, and perception. Schizophrenia is the most common and the most potentially sever and disabling of the psychosis, a term encompassing several severe mental disorders that result in the loss of contact with reality along with major personality derangements. Schizophrenia patients experience delusions, hallucinations and often lose thought process. Schizophrenia affects an estimated one percent of the population in every country of the world. Victims share a range of symptoms that can be devastating to themselves as well as to families and friends. They may have trouble dealing with the most minor everyday stresses and insignificant changes in their surroundings. They may avoid social contact, ignore personal hygiene and behave oddly (Kass, 194). Many people outside the mental health profession believe that schizophrenia refers to a “split personality”. The word “schizophrenia” comes from the Greek schizo, meaning split and phrenia refers to the diaphragm once thought to be the location of a person’s mind and soul. When the word “schizophrenia” was established by European psychiatrists, they meant to describe a shattering, or breakdown, of basic psychological functions. Eugene Bleuler is one of the most influential psychiatrists of his time. He is best known today for his introduction of the term “schizophrenia” to describe the disorder previously known as dementia praecox and for his studies of schizophrenics. The illness can best be described as a collection of particular symptoms that usually fall into four basic categories: formal thought disorder, perception disorder, feeling/emotional disturbance, and behavior disorders (Young, 23). People with schizophrenia describe strange of unrealistic thoughts. Their speech is sometimes hard to follow because of disordered thinking. Phrases seem disconnected, and ideas move from topic to topic with no logical pattern in what is being said. In some cases, individuals with schizophrenia say that they have no idea at all or that their heads seem “empty”. Many schizophrenic patients think they possess extraordinary powers such as x-ray vision or super strength. They may believe that their thoughts are being controlled by others or that everyone knows what they are thinking. These beliefs ar...

    Read More

  • The Mediterranean Diet

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    Somerset Maugham said that “To eat well in England you should have breakfast three times a day”. “To live anywhere in the world you should eat at least three times a day” is probably close to the truth as well. What people eat and drink in countries close to the Mediterranean Sea is called the Mediterranean Diet. To compare this Mediterranean Diet to a typical Diet from the south of Benin, it would be correct to say that the Benin Diet is equivalent to the Mediterranean Diet because although the nutritional values are lower in the Beninois diet, it is cheaper and easier to find than the Mediterranean diet in the southern region of Benin. This paper is going to compare the diet of Benin to the diet of the Mediterranean from the nutritional values, the availability and the accessibility perspectives.

    Read More

  • The Role of Alcohol in Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night Essays

    1110 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bruccoli, Matthew J. and Judith S. Baughman. Reader's Companion to F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night.

    Read More

  • The Mediterranean Diet

    1049 Words  | 3 Pages

    Together with the accessibility of the food in the south of Benin and its affordability, my region’s diet is equal to the Mediterranean diet. The reason why it is not superior to the Mediterranean diet is that it does not contains enough nutrients to guarantee a long life expectancy.

    Read More

  • Schizophrenia in A Beautiful Mind

    906 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the film “ A Beautiful Mind” John Nash experiences a few different positive symptoms. The first of these positive symptoms are seen through the hallucinations John has of having a room -mate while at Princeton. This room- mate continues to stay “in contact” with John through out his adult life and later this room- mate’s niece enters Johns mind as another coinciding hallucination. Nash’s other hallucination is Ed Harris, who plays a government agent that seeks out Nash’s intelligence in the field of code- breaking.

    Read More

  • Tender Is The Night

    900 Words  | 2 Pages

    Tender is The Night is a fictional novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, set in The French Riviera in the 1920’s, with flashbacks dated in the early 1910’s. It begins with a young actress, Rosemary and her mother, in France, on a vacation. Once there, she meets a man by the name of Dick Diver, a psychologist from America, and his wife Nicole on the beach. The beach is also where she meets two different parties of complete opposites. Once Rosemary had formally entered the Diver’s group, she began to attend the parties they would host with their friends. She ends up meeting a lot of new faces, like the McKiscos, Abe North, and Tommy Barban. At this point, Rosemary is obsessed with the Divers and has an obsession with Dick, flirting with him even though he has a wife and kids. She talks to her mother about the

    Read More

More about Sense of Self: Schizophrenia and I

Open Document