The Positive Symptoms Of Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia, a mental illness which Encarta (2001) defines as an illness that can result in hallucinations, delusional thought patterns, and inappropriate effect. It literally means “split-mind’, but is not to be confused with personality disorder. Symptoms of schizophrenia can be negative, which are present before the onset of the disorder, or positive, which occur during the active phase. Positive symptoms of the disease include delusions of grandeur (a belief that one is a famous admired individual), delusion of control (when they believe something wants to control them), delusions of broadcasting (belief that another can read their minds or their thoughts are being aired on the radio), delusions of persecution, and thought withdrawal

Negative symptoms include anhedonia (the inability to feel pleasure), alogia (disorganized speech), and flat affect (when the individual does not show any emotion even in situations that strong reactions are expected).

NIMH (1999) reports that people with this disease are prone to perceive reality in a manner that fluctuates from the way a healthy human being perceives it. The ill individual can be one of the two extremes: catatonic or hyperactive. Furthermore, NIMH and Encarta (2001) agree that this illness is a frightening and lonely experience because of the various hallucinations, illusions, delusions, disordered thinking, and emotional expressions that plague the individual. Hallucinations are acuities that occur without the presence of a valid source. The most common hallucination schizophrenics encounter is hearing voices that others are not privy to. Although it has been documented that hallucinations can occur in any of one’s five senses. An illusion is when a schizophrenic misinterprets a sensory stimulus. Delusions are a misconception of

In 1956, Howard F. Searles wrote a paper on his clinical experience claiming that the aetiology of schizophrenia is partly by reason of a long-continued effort, a wholly unconscious effort, on the part of some person(s) highly important in his/her upbringing, to drive him/her crazy. A guardian, is supposed to nourish the child and help them grow as an individual. Searles (1956) claims that there are situations where the custodian in fact does the opposite, hence inflicting insanity upon the child. One of such methods is assault by the parents in the sense of eliminating their own psychosis by inflicting it upon the child. Another method is when a parent sexually arouses the child which causes and internal conflict for him; One the one hand, his sexual needs and on the other hand, the “super-ego relations”, or the cultural view against incest. Furthermore, parents of schizophrenics have often pleaded for sympathy and understanding. And yet rejected the child’s attempts to be helpful, leaving the child to feel