ABSTRACT
The time required for the phenomenon of schizophrenia to fully reveal itself as such—or not—can be several months, or several years, depending on a variety of factors unique to each patient. Missing a patient's schizophrenia can lead to tragedy, but a wrong diagnosis of this illness brings its own tragedy. Adolf Meyer noted that when encountering a patient with psychotic symptoms, many clinicians diagnose schizophrenia out of what he saw as "laziness." Any clinician attempting to diagnose schizophrenia using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-5 criteria is faced with an essential paradox: It is possible for someone to meet the DSM criteria and not be a schizophrenic or have schizophrenia, depending on how one feels about the distinction that some insist on between being mentally ill or having a mental illness. In diagnosing schizophrenia, several lesser psychotic illnesses need to be considered and ruled out, including what we are calling psychotic mood reaction and dynamic psychotic reaction.
