Eugen Bleuler however tried to define the core of the disorder. Bleuler disagreed with Kraepelin on two points. Bleuler believed that the disorder didn’t necessary have an early onset and that the disorder didn’t necessarily lead to total dementia. Since he believed that the disorder didn’t lead to total dementia the term dementia praecox was no longer valid, so in 1908 Bleuler suggested a new term for the condition Schizophrenia. Bleuler had a great influence over the American concept of Schizophrenia. Whilst the European view of Schizophrenia remained relatively narrow.

The American view of schizophrenia broadened significantly during the 20th century, wi

Positive symptoms include disorganised speech, hallucinations, delusions and bizarre behaviour. Disorganised speech also known has formal thought disorder. It refers to the problems that a patient has in organising speech in a manner the listener can understand. A patients speech can be made difficult because they are incoherent and whilst the patient makes repeated references to central ideas, the images and fragments of thought are not connected. Speech can also become disorganised through loose association or derailment, in which case the patient may have more success communicating to the listener but they have difficulty sticking to one subject. The disorganisation of thought seems more central to schizophrenia than the disorganisation of speech. Many schizophrenics are subject to delusions, holding a belief that the rest of society would simply deem as false. Delusions generally take one of eight forms.

The search for a brain abnormality as a cause for schizophrenia started as soon as the syndrome was identified. Until recently most of the research into brain abnormalities as been useless. But recent technological advances have meant that recently a number of interesting findings have been made. It is believed that some schizophrenics have observable brain pathology. The post-mortem analysis of the brains of schizophrenics consistently reveals brain abnormalities, although the specific problems reported vary from study to study (Weinberg et al, 1983). Recent studies using CAT scans and MRI have revealed that some schizophrenics especially males have enlarged ventricles (Andreasen et al, 1990).

Negative symptoms consist of behavioural malfunctions such as avolition, alogia, anhedonia, and flat effect. Avolition is when the patient has a lack of interest or energy when it comes to routine activities such has personal hygiene. They spend a lot of time sitting around doing nothing. Alogia has several components, these include a reduction in the amount of speech, a degrading of the content of the speech and whilst the person is coherent they convey very little information when speaking. Anhedonia is the inability to experience pleasure. Flat affect is when virtually no stimulus can get an emotional response.

erefore they are blaming themselves for their failure to perform. Many schizophrenics experience hallucinations commenting on their actions. This could be caused because they have a problem with their self-image or self esteem caused by stress. If you imagine yourself very stressed maybe at the scene of an accident, you need to do something about the accident, but your finding it difficult to remember what you should do. To avoid panic some people break down complex actions like first aid at the scene of an accident into simpler instructions. For instance at the scene of an accident you would take deep breath then look for danger, check the airways of the injured etc. When you are in a stressful situation you comment on yourself. Maybe schizophrenic hallucination is the same response caused involuntary by a brain malfunction.

Some topics in this essay:
III American, Carl Jung, Harry Sullivan, Ventura Nechterman, Laborit French, McGuffin Farmer, Koenigsberg Hadley, Dementia Praecox, Cerletti Bini, Schizophrenia Kansnin, †patient, patient believes, schizophrenia caused, †patient believes, et al, development schizophrenia, negative symptoms, dopamine activity, symptoms schizophrenia, diagnosed schizophrenia, external force, children schizophrenic mothers, patient hears voices, discharged hospital patients, theory suggests person,