Mental Health History Of Schizophrenia - 2288 Words

â€Å"God must have been having a bad day,† a father recently wrote me, â€Å"when He allowed schizophrenia to come into existence.† E. Fuller Torrey, M.D. (Walsh, 1985) 1. History of schizophrenic theory Accounts of schizophrenia have been recorded all throughout human history. From Mesopotamia, ancient Greece, Rome and India, all the way through the 15th and 17th centuries (Walker, 2003). It is difficult to truly ascertain whether or not this was schizophrenia or other psychotic illnesses. My guess is it was probably both. Throughout mental health history, theory on schizophrenia has changed in every aspect possible. Etiology, age of onset and even the disorder’s name has been changed, questioned, and changed yet again. The highly insightful†¦show more content†¦Bleuler was an advocate for the psychoanalytic movement which had strong traction during his time. Hafner (2014) writes that Bleuler classified the now hallmark symptoms of delusions and hallucinations as â€Å"accessory symptoms†, since they were common in other psychotic disorders as well. The basic symptoms, Bleuler argued, were the four A’s, which stood fo r ambivalence, autism, affective congruity and association disturbances. This is not surprising, since Bleuler was an advocate of the psychoanalytic movement, so to Bleuler, emotional disturbances were obviously the cause of a schizophrenic disturbance. The differing early views of Kraeplin and Bleuler are significantly important to our current understanding of schizophrenia in the fact that both could be considered partially correct. Kraeplin’s claims could be, in today’s terms, highlighting the neurobiological deficits (such as gradual overall volumetric loss of key neuronal structures and genetic predispositions towards structural deficits occurring during crucial developmental periods) that current researchers are investigating as contributing causes of schizophrenia. On the other hand, Bleuler’s claims of emotional disturbances probably are not one of the primary causes of developing schizophrenia, but schizophrenia’s symptoms and comorbid disorders can be exacerbated by the schizophrenic individual’s