ABSTRACT

When one thinks of amnesia, one usually thinks of disorders where there is focal neurological damage—to the hippocampus, mammillary bodies, thalamus or other structures—which cause memory impairment as their chief symptom. Nor do the symptoms of schizophrenia—delusions, hallucinations, incoherence of speech, emotional changes, social withdrawal, and occupational decline—seem to be even remotely related to memory or amnesia. This chapter describes a patient who deviates considerably from the standard accounts of schizophrenia as described in psychiatric textbooks. On the psychological side, while stress does not seem to play any great role in causing schizophrenia in the first place, it is probably unwise to ignore such factors altogether. In the last 10 years there has been an explosion of interest in the neuropsychology of schizophrenia. Lateral ventricular enlargement may therefore best be regarded as a trait-marker or risk-factor for schizophrenia rather than some direct index of brain disease.