Introduction

This chapter provides the theoretical and methodological background from which the book proceeds. It begins by establishing the motivations behind the project, with a particular focus on how stigma towards people with schizophrenia contributes to poorer clinical outcomes for people diagnosed with the disorder. The remainder of the chapter provides a detailed overview of the topics and approaches which will inform the analysis. These include an historical overview of schizophrenia, the role of the British press in shaping public beliefs and attitudes, critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics. The chapter ends by offering some reflections on the limitations of the approach taken in this book.