ABSTRACT
Historical changes as reflected in alterations in terminology illuminate the development of understandings of psychosis and schizophrenia. This chapter outlines a basic timeline relating to mental disorders and psychiatry. It considers how the classifications of psychosis and related conditions, along with their vocabulary, have developed over time. The chapter focuses on the historical development of the words 'mania', 'maniac' and 'maniacal'. It looks at a brief chronology of some developments concerning mental disorders, leaving the timeline at about the close of the eighteenth century. Around that time, notions were formed that can be more securely linked to later development in the understanding and classifications of psychosis and schizophrenia. Further developments took place leading to an international set of criteria for the diagnosis of mental disorders. A widely used set of criteria is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Changes can come about in the terms used for mental disorders because of perceptions that the terms have negative connotations.
