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Toward a Definition of Schizophrenia

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Book cover The Behavioral High-Risk Paradigm in Psychopathology

Part of the book series: Series in Psychopathology ((PSYCHOPATHOLOGY))

Abstract

The five chapters in this section provide detailed and thoughtful reviews of factors that may be indicative of risk to schizophrenia. One thing that none of them do, however, is provide a comprehensive definition of schizophrenia. This is not surprising, because with few exceptions (e.g., Meehl, 1990), it is uncommon for contemporary psychopathologists to define schizophrenia. I believe psychopathologists are reluctant to provide definitions of schizophrenia for several reasons. First, most psychopathologists share similar views of many, though not all, of the more salient aspects of schizophrenia. For example, most psychopathologists would probably agree that being out of touch with reality (as indicated by the presence of hallucinations and/or delusions) is an important aspect of schizophrenia and can be used relatively reliably, albeit imperfectly, for identifying schizophrenic individuals. Second, there does not yet exist a widely shared comprehensive definition of schizophrenia. Finally, it is not yet possible to provide a comprehensive definition of schizophrenia that could be supported by empirical evidence. Consequently, when comprehensive definitions of schizophrenia are provided, they are admittedly speculative (e.g., Meehl, 1993).

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Authors
  1. Howard Berenbaum
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 603 East Daniel Street, Champaign, IL, 61820, USA

    Gregory A. Miller Ph.D. (Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry) (Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry)

  2. Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 603 East Daniel Street, Champaign, IL, 61820, USA

    Gregory A. Miller Ph.D. (Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry) (Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry)

  3. Department of Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 603 East Daniel Street, Champaign, IL, 61820, USA

    Gregory A. Miller Ph.D. (Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry) (Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry)

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© 1995 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.

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Berenbaum, H. (1995). Toward a Definition of Schizophrenia. In: Miller, G.A. (eds) The Behavioral High-Risk Paradigm in Psychopathology. Series in Psychopathology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4234-5_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4234-5_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-8705-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-4234-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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