Positive symptoms distort or add excess to normal functions whereas negative symptoms cause a decrease or loss in these functions. Not everyone with this disorder will behave in the same manner or exhibit the same gamut of symptoms. There are four distinct categories (which each contain a specific array of symptoms) for the classification of schizophrenics: paranoid, catatonic, disorganized (formerly known as hebephrenic), and undifferentiated. Those who are paranoid are disturbed with delusions and hallucinations, and are typically suspicious of everyone and everything. Catatonic schizophrenics have considerable motor problems. Speech and behaviour are affected in those individuals who are classified as disorganized. Those who are undifferentiated are generally simple-minded. One thing is true for all schizophrenics; they show atypical responses to social situations and act independently of culture.
Positive and Negative Symptoms.
The symptoms that are characteristic to schizophrenics can be classified into two categories: positive and negative. Positive symptoms are those that add something to perception whereas negative symptoms are those that take away from it. Negative symptoms, however, are not particular to schizophrenia; they are seen in many neurological disorders that involve brain damage, particularly to the frontal lobe. Positive symptoms are those that distort or add excess to normal functions, and are commonly in the form of delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and haphazard and bizarre behaviour. Delusions are the faulty perception of reality; hallucinations can produce misapprehensions in the auditory, visual, tactile, or olfactory senses; disorganized speech can consist of wrong answers, rhyming schemes, repetition, or "word salads"; haphazard and bizarre behaviour is characterised by catatonic excitement and rigidity, waxy flexibility, and a total disregard to social conventions.
