On the Psychopathology of Schizophrenia

Abstract

In this paper it is my intention to review some of the central aspects of the psychopathology of schizophrenia. At the outset it would be appropriate to establish the role which psychopathology must play in our efforts to arrive at a fuller understanding of the schizophrenic psychosis. Psychopathology is, as the term itself reveals, a psychological study of abnormal mental functions. It is not primarily concerned with the organic bases for the disturbance of mental activity, but such a study does not imply that the roots of abnormal psychological processes do not in fact lie in somatic pathology. To my mind psychopathology and studies of disturbed brain function in mental disease are complementary to one another. Many distinguished workers in the field of the psychoses have referred to the disappointing results of biochemical and electro-physiological research in schizophrenia. They have suggested that the failure of such research has arisen in part from the absence of correlation between clinical studies on the one hand and physiological studies on the other. Tait (1958) has remarked that although physiological research can provide us with a wealth of data this data will only become meaningful whenever clinicians are in a position to provide biochemists and electrophysiologists with sets of specific questions. The formulation of such questions must depend upon a refinement of our diagnostic categories. Similar criticisms have been levelled against psychological research. In a recent review of contemporary psychological research Rabin and King (1958) have pointed out that the lack of criteria necessary for the selection of a homogeneous group of patients leads to the vitiation of much current psychological research. It is possible that psychopathology may be able in the future to contribute something to the solution of these methodological difficulties which so beset and hamper contemporary research in schizophrenia.