Definitions of Schizophrenia

Abstract

One way schizophrenia researchers attempted to pin down their conception of twentieth-century madness was through definition. So we now turn to examine definitions of schizophrenia. But before proceeding, it is worth remembering that the contemporary reader, and those involved in schizophrenia research, bring to any such history an entirely different mindset regarding definitions per se in comparison with early twentieth-century psychiatrists. For that generation the linguistic turn of philosophy was never really apparent. And controversy over the nature of definition itself would not emerge as a major theme in psychiatric research until approximately the second half of that century.