Running Head: THE THEN AND NOW OF SCHIZOPHRENIA 1
THE THEN AND NOW OF SCHIZOPHRENIA 3
The then and now of Schizophrenia
Treona Carter
Professor: Templegean-Hemphill
English 120
Abstract
This essay is focused solely and discusses first a little history about schizophrenia and where the word comes from also, the effects of schizophrenia what it is, when it was discovered and the effects it has on people with this disorder and its relationships. Next I will also cover the symptoms of schizophrenia how can someone detect if their family member or a friend has this harsh disease. Furthermore I will discuss the types of schizophrenia that you can have from rare to most common and finally, I will discuss the myths about this disorder, because not everything people think about schizophrenia is true a lot of it is myth.
The history of schizophrenia
The word schizophrenia dates back less than 100 years ago but, the disease itself dates back as far as ancient Egypt times and the second millennium before Christ. During these times people considered to be abnormal or have a mental illness where treated as if they were possessed by evil spirits. The treatments for such illnesses, where exorcisms, exposing the patients to different types of music and releasing the evil spirits by drilling holes in the patient’s skull. Schizophrenia still wasn’t identified with a name until the late 1800’s by German physician Emilie Kraepelin he named this disorder Dementia Praecox in the year of 1887 (Shean, 2004), he was also the first to classify these disorders into different categories. Until 1911 when Eugene Bleuler a Swiss Psychiatrist came up with the term schizophrenia. He was also the first to describe the symptoms of schizophrenia as either positive or negative. Bleuler changed the name from Dementia praecox because Kraepelins term was misleading because the disease was not dementia, it didn’t always lead to the deterioration of your mind and mostly occurs early in life where as dementia occurs late in life. The word "schizophrenia" comes from the Greek roots schizo meaning split and phrene meaning mind to describe the scattered thinking of people with the disorder. His term was not meant to convey the idea of split or multiple personality, a common misunderstanding of schizophrenia. The definition of schizophrenia has continued to change, as scientists attempt to more accurately differentiate the different types of mental diseases. Without knowing the exact causes of these diseases, scientists can only base their classifications on the observation that some symptoms tend to occur together.
Both Bleuler and Kraepelin divided and subdivided schizophrenia into categories, based on known symptoms and prognoses. There are five known types of schizophrenia; disorganized, catatonic, paranoid, residual, and undifferentiated. The first three categories were origina...
