ABSTRACT
It is best to begin a psychological discussion of schizophrenia by confronting the question of its biological origins. The early theoretical efforts to understand schizophrenia as a product and residue of childhood family dynamics, such as the “double bind” hypothesis of the mother-child relationship, that were once widely considered, are no longer of great interest. There is widespread agreement that a central feature, many consider it to be the central feature, of schizophrenia is thought disorder. The investigator, Frith, refers to schizophrenic speech disorders as “a problem in the generation of willed intentions.” The experiences of paranoid schizophrenics, anxiously constructed around decontextualized fragments, like the more elaborate delusional ideas, are often expressed by their subjects with certainty. Freud used the detailed exposition by the German jurist, Daniel Paul Schreber, of his acute psychotic breakdown, Memoirs of My Nervous Illness, in developing his theory of paranoia as a defense against unconscious homosexual wishes.
