ABSTRACT

First published in 2002. Schizophrenia: A Scientific Delusion?, first published in 1990, made a very significant contribution to the debates on the concepts of schizophrenia and mental illness. These concepts remain both influential and controversial and this new updated second edition provides an incisive critical analysis of the debates over the last decade. As well as providing updated versions of the historical and scientific arguments against the concept of schizophrenia which formed the basis of the first edition, Boyle covers significant new material relevant to today’s debates.

chapter |28 pages

The background

Events leading up to the introduction of ‘schizophrenia’

chapter |36 pages

The necessary conditions for inferring schizophrenia

The work of Kraepelin, Bleuler and Schneider

chapter |19 pages

The official correspondence rules for inferring schizophrenia

1 The development of diagnostic criteria

chapter |53 pages

Genetic research

chapter |38 pages

Supporting and maintaining ‘schizophrenia’

Language, arguments and benefits

chapter |74 pages

Living without ‘schizophrenia’

Issues and some alternatives