The Origins of Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a behavioural disorder that affects both men and woman. It involves a difficulty in telling the different between real and imagined experiences. The disorder usually sees its onset in teen years or young adulthood. It is often referred to as a type of split personality or multiple personality disorder. Oftentimes people with this condition find themselves socially isolated mainly because people with this condition find it difficult to make normal social responses and have generally disorganized minds. The irritability caused by living with a mind that feels confused much of the time often causes feelings of depression, anxiety and sometimes suicidal thoughts. With treatment many people manage to function well with this affliction, however others are find it difficult and this leads to many other social problems. In this essay I hope to explore some first person accounts of living and dealing with schizophrenia, as well examining some popular texts about culture and scholarly but non medical texts that look at schizophrenia. Such a complex illness and its patients have become the study and focus of many different disciplines over the years so this will allow me to pull information from other non medical disciplines, giving a more ‘real-life’ account of the condition.

Two main theorists came up with the condition we now know as schizophrenia; Emil Kreaplien and Eugen Bleuler. Kreaplien initially described ‘dementia praecox’, something we now understand to be schizophrenia. Kreaplien differentiated between two disorders, manic depressive illness and dementia praecox and believed that although these disorders were ‘systematically diverse that held a common core.’ Kreaplien believed that the original majo...

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Robert Desjarlais, A Reader in Medical Anthropology Theoretical Trajectories, Emergent Realities (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010) 160.

Robert Desjarlais, A Reader in Medical Anthropology Theoretical Trajectories, Emergent Realities (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010) 160.

Ibid.

Ibid, 163.

Ibid.

Robert Desjarlais, A Reader in Medical Anthropology Theoretical Trajectories, Emergent Realities (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 164.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Robert Desjarlais, A Reader in Medical Anthropology Theoretical Trajectories, Emergent Realities (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010),166.

Ibid.

Ibid, 168.

Ibid, 170.

Jonathon M. Metzl, The Protest Psychosis (Boston: Beacon Press, 2009), ix.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid, x.

Ibid, xi.

Jonathon M. Metzl, The Protest Psychosis (Boston: Beacon Press, 2009), 3.

Ibid.