schizophrenia

DSM and Disability

December 12, 2010

Every society in every generation makes errors.  Some of the errors are minor.  Some are major.  One of the great errors of the 20th century was this:  we accepted the spurious notion that a wide range of life’s problems were in fact illnesses.  This spurious notion was initiated with good intentions – to provide shelter [...]

Read the rest →

Schizophrenia Is Not An Illness (Part 3)

March 20, 2010

Hallucinations In Schizophrenia Part 1, we noted that the APA lists hallucinations as one of the primary “symptoms” of schizophrenia.  The APA defines an hallucination as follows: “A sensory perception that has the compelling sense of reality of a true perception but that occurs without external stimulation of the relevant sensory organ.” (DSM-IV-TR, p 823) [...]

Read the rest →

Schizophrenia Is Not an Illness (Part 2)

February 21, 2010

Delusions, contd. In my last post I pointed out that schizophrenia as defined by DSM is a confusing collection of human problems with no evidence of a common etiology or indeed any valid justification for including them under a common heading.  I discussed delusions and made the point that cognitive distortions of this kind are [...]

Read the rest →

Schizophrenia Is Not An Illness (Part 1)

January 21, 2010

The APA defines schizophrenia by the presence of two or more of the following, each present for a significant portion of time during a one-month period: (1)   delusions (2)   hallucinations (3)   disorganized speech (4)   grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior (5)   negative symptoms i.e. affective flattening, alogia or avolition Signs of the disturbance must have been [...]

Read the rest →