Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T12:25:01.386Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

On the Psychopathology of Schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

Thomas Freeman*
Affiliation:
Lansdowne Clinic, Glasgow; Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Glasgow

Extract

In this paper it is my intention to review some of the central aspects of the psychopathology of schizophrenia. At the outset it would be appropriate to establish the role which psychopathology must play in our efforts to arrive at a fuller understanding of the schizophrenic psychosis. Psychopathology is, as the term itself reveals, a psychological study of abnormal mental functions. It is not primarily concerned with the organic bases for the disturbance of mental activity, but such a study does not imply that the roots of abnormal psychological processes do not in fact lie in somatic pathology. To my mind psychopathology and studies of disturbed brain function in mental disease are complementary to one another. Many distinguished workers in the field of the psychoses have referred to the disappointing results of biochemical and electro-physiological research in schizophrenia. They have suggested that the failure of such research has arisen in part from the absence of correlation between clinical studies on the one hand and physiological studies on the other. Tait (1958) has remarked that although physiological research can provide us with a wealth of data this data will only become meaningful whenever clinicians are in a position to provide biochemists and electrophysiologists with sets of specific questions. The formulation of such questions must depend upon a refinement of our diagnostic categories. Similar criticisms have been levelled against psychological research. In a recent review of contemporary psychological research Rabin and King (1958) have pointed out that the lack of criteria necessary for the selection of a homogeneous group of patients leads to the vitiation of much current psychological research. It is possible that psychopathology may be able in the future to contribute something to the solution of these methodological difficulties which so beset and hamper contemporary research in schizophrenia.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1960 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bleuler, E., Textbook of Psychiatry, 1924. London: Macmillan, 1944.Google Scholar
Fisher, C., “Dreams and Perception”, J. Amer. Psycho-Anal. Ass., 1954, 2, 389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeman, T., Cameron, J. L., and McGhie, A., Chronic Schizophrenia, 1958. London: Tavistock Publications.Google Scholar
Freud, S., The Interpretation of Dreams, 1900. London: Allen ' Unwin, 1954.Google Scholar
Idem , “Psycho-Analytical Notes Upon an Autobiographical Account of a Case of Paranoia”, Collected Papers, 1911, 3. London: Hogarth Press, 1947.Google Scholar
Idem , Totem and Taboo, 1913. London: Routledge ' Kegan Paul, 1950.Google Scholar
Idem , “The Unconscious”, Collected Papers, 1915, 4. London: Hogarth Press, 1947.Google Scholar
Idem , “Metapsychological Supplement to the Theory of Dreams”, Collected Papers, 1916, 4. London: Hogarth Press, 1947.Google Scholar
Idem , The Ego and the Id, 1923. London: Hogarth Press, 1947.Google Scholar
Idem , “Some Elementary Lessons in Psycho-Analysis”, Collected Papers, 1938, 5. London: Hogarth Press, 1950.Google Scholar
Harris, A., “Sensory Deprivation and Schizophrenia”, J. Ment. Sci., 1959, 105, 235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, G. S., “Consciousness in Psycho-Analytic Theory: Some Implications for Current Research in Perception”, J. Amer. Psycho-Anal. Ass., 1959, 7, 5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piaget, J., The Psychology of Intelligence, 1947. London: Routledge ' Kegan Paul, 1950.Google Scholar
Poetzl, O. (quoted by Werner, 1957), Comparative Psychology of Mental Development, 1957. New York: Int. Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Rabin, A. I., and King, G. I., “Psychological Studies in Schizophrenia (ed. by Bellak, L.), 1958. New York: Logos Press, 1958.Google Scholar
Schilder, P. Medical Psychology, 1923. New York: Int. Univ. Press, 1953.Google Scholar
Sechahaye, M., A New Psychotherapy in Schizophrenia, 1956. New York: Grune ' Stratton, 1956.Google Scholar
Tait, A., “The Physiopathology of Schizophrenia, in Topics in Psychiatry, 1958. London: Cassell, 1958.Google Scholar
Varendonck, J., The Psychology of Day Dreams, 1912. London, 1912.Google Scholar
Werner, H., Comparative Psychology of Mental Development, 1957. New York: Int. Univ. Press, 1957.Google Scholar
Idem and Wapner, S., “Toward a General Theory of Perception”, Psychol. Rev., 1952, 59, 324.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.