ABSTRACT
The word ‘psychosis’ is derived from the Greek psyche meaning ‘mind’ and osis meaning a ‘state’ or ‘condition’ and has come to imply a disorder of the mind. The term is said to have been first employed by Von Feuchtersleben in 1854 although it did not come into general use until this century, the word ‘insanity’ being used instead. With the passage of time, the word psychosis has acquired a relatively specific meaning. Psychotic illnesses are the most serious of mental illnesses, in the sense that patients suffering from these conditions are out of touch with reality, their whole personality is involved, and, whilst suffering from the illness, there is an impairment of social adjustment. Traditionally, the psychotic illnesses are divided into two groups:
The organic psychoses: those where there are demonstrable underlying physical causes.
The functional psychoses those where no specific physical cause has been shown.
