Schizophrenia problem
Schizophrenia is a group of mental disorders characterized by a diverse course, the presence of positive, negative and cognitive symptoms, combined with each other within certain forms.
The problem of schizophrenia is multifaceted and goes beyond medicine. This mental disorder is not only attracting the attention of doctors, psychologists and social workers, but anthropologists, philosophers, theologians, historians, journalists and people of many other professions are interested in it .
Writers and artists have repeatedly turned to the topic of schizophrenia, and scientists often looked for traces of genius in the works of those who suffered from this disease.
Since the moment when the term “schizophrenia” was proposed, the definitions of this concept have often differed among themselves in different countries.
According to the words of J. Wyrsch (1960), despite the fact that “on the other and the other side of the Rhine authority used as the E. Kraepelin, and E. Bleuler, at one and the same word” schizophrenia “is understood, not one and the same.” It may not have clarified much in twentieth-century psychiatry, but it has often become a stigma that was often mistaken and could cause real harm by violating human rights.
It is pertinent to recall that E. Bleuler proposed the term “schizophrenia” just in order to prevent the formation of a negative attitude towards this disease on the part of society. From his point of view, the previous definitions of both “premature dementia” and “intrapsychic ataxia” not only did not correspond to the essence of the disease, but contributed to the mistreatment of people suffering from this disease.
History knows many examples of the fatal role of many terms in psychiatry. For example, when in 1933 city of in Germany was introduced “Law on prevention of family history of offspring”, the word “schizophrenia” was extremely dangerous.
In the history of medicine, the importance of schizophrenia can hardly be overestimated. Many terms in psychiatry have developed in parallel with the evolution of the theory of this mental disorder, so the language of modern psychopathology was partly influenced by descriptions of the clinical picture of schizophrenia.
Some concepts, which were so popular at the time of their appearance, were replaced by others, in the opinion of the researchers, which more accurately corresponded to the essence of the disease. Some terms, such as “premature dementia”, already belong to the pages of history, and the concepts of “procedural”, “psychotic”, “functional psychosis” or “endogenous disease” are recognized as vague, lacking clear criteria.
And today the meaning of many clinical concepts related to the field of schizophrenia is constantly evolving, gradually adjusting to the requirements of practice and the results obtained in the course of new research.