ABSTRACT
The conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in this book. This book reveals the cognitive processes underlying the various features of schizophrenia. It proposes that there are three principal abnormalities, which account for all the major signs and symptoms. Many patients with schizophrenia characteristically show a poverty of action in all spheres: movement, speech, and affect. Extreme cases would be described as showing abulia, alogia and athymia. Inability to generate spontaneous (willed) acts can lead to poverty of action, perseveration, inappropriate action. The chapter proposes that many of the experiences classified as first rank symptoms, for example delusions of alien control, can be interpreted as arising from a defect of self-monitoring. It proposes that many of the experiences classified as first rank symptoms, for example delusions of alien control, can be interpreted as arising from a defect of self-monitoring. The signs of childhood autism have many similarities with those of schizophrenia.
