enerbol and Schizophrenia

Recent debates concerning the abolition of the schizophrenia label in psychiatry have focused upon problems with the scientific status of the concept. In this article, I argue that rather than attacking schizophrenia for its lack of scientific validity, we should focus on the conceptual history of this label. I reconstruct a specific tradition when exploring the conceptual history of schizophrenia. This is the concern with the question of the sense of life itself, conducted through the confrontation with schizophrenia as a form of life that does not live, or as Robert Jay Lifton termed it "lifeless life" (1979: 222-39). I conclude by arguing that the contemporary attempt to deconstruct or abolish the schizophrenia concept involves a fundamental shift in concern. The attempt both to normalize psychotic experiences, and to conceive them purely in terms of cognitive processes that can be mapped onto brain function, results in a fundamental move away from the attempt to understand the experience of madness.

Topics: Attitude to Health; Cognition Disorders; Culture; History, 20th Century; Life; Psychiatry; Schizophrenia; Science

Topics: Humans; Life; Schizophrenia

Topics: Conversion Disorder; Defense Mechanisms; Humans; Hysteria; Life; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenic Psychology

Topics: Humans; Life; Perception; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenic Psychology

Topics: Humans; Life; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenic Psychology

Topics: Emotions; Humans; Life; Psychopathology; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenic Psychology