ABSTRACT
AN important and frequently overlooked consideration in evaluating schizophrenic disturbance, particularly in its acute forms, is the phase in which it is manifest. Schizophrenia occurs primarily in three phases, incipient, overt, and remitting. The incipient phase of schizophrenia is a period of early decompensation characterized by increasing personality disintegration and movement toward an impending psychosis; it is a stage of disturbance at which unequivocal diagnosis is often difficult, but at which early detection can foster preventive measures that avert further decompensation. Overt schizophrenia is that phase of frank psychosis that has been illustrated by the case material in Chapters 13 and 14. Remitting schizophrenia is a phase of recovery from overt schizophrenia that is marked by restitutive efforts and progressive personality redintegration; it is the stage of disturbance at which such important therapeutic measures as decrease in supervision, discharge from hospital, and return to work can be most effectively implemented.
