Definition

Noun: 1. A severe, chronic mental disorder: Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness characterized by a breakdown in the relationship between thought, emotion, and behavior. This leads to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental fragmentation. 2. A condition marked by specific symptoms: It is typically characterized by symptoms that are often categorized as "positive" (such as hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech) and "negative" (such as reduced emotional expression, social withdrawal, lack of motivation).

Examples of Usage

• Noun:
  • He was diagnosed with schizophrenia in his early twenties.
  • The research focuses on new treatments for schizophrenia.
  • Symptoms of schizophrenia can include hearing voices and having paranoid thoughts.

Advanced Usage

• "Paranoid schizophrenia": A subtype historically used to describe schizophrenia where delusions or auditory hallucinations are prominent, often with themes of persecution or grandiosity. (Note: Modern diagnostic manuals have moved away from these subtypes).
• "The schizophrenia of [something]": A metaphorical, non-clinical use to describe a state of contradictory or fragmented elements within a system, idea, or situation.
  • The schizophrenia of government policy on the issue was confusing to everyone.

Variants and Related Words

• Schizophrenic (adjective): Of, relating to, or suffering from schizophrenia.
  • She studies schizophrenic disorders.
• Schizophrenic (noun, often considered outdated or offensive in clinical contexts): A person with schizophrenia. It is generally preferable to use "a person with schizophrenia" or "an individual diagnosed with schizophrenia."
• Schizoid (adjective): Resembling or characteristic of schizophrenia, especially in showing social detachment and emotional coldness. It is also a distinct personality disorder.

Synonyms

• Psychosis (a broader term for a loss of contact with reality, of which schizophrenia is one type).
• Mental disorder, psychiatric illness (general terms).

Related Phrases

• To be diagnosed with schizophrenia: To receive a formal identification of the illness from a medical professional.
  • After a full assessment, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
• To manage/treat schizophrenia: To use medication, therapy, and support to control the symptoms of the illness.
  • With proper medication, many people can manage schizophrenia effectively.

Related Idioms

• There are no common idioms directly using the clinical term "schizophrenia." The metaphorical use in "Advanced Usage" functions similarly to an idiom to describe contradiction.

Noun

1. any of several psychotic disorders characterized by distortions of reality and disturbances of thought and language and withdrawal from social contact