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Positive and Negative Signals: A Conceptual History

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Negative Versus Positive Schizophrenia

Abstract

The terms “positive” and “negative”, used to categorize the symptoms of schizophrenia, have “burst in the horizon as a recurrent comet” (Zubin 1985). More popular, perhaps, amongst researchers than clinicians, they have thrived almost beyond the reach of evaluation. Unimpressed by fashion, the conceptual historian must ask:

  1. 1.

    What do these terms contribute (that others do not) to the understanding of the symptoms of schizophrenia? In the past, it must be remembered, other (less successful) pairs of words have been used for the same purpose: primary versus secondary, first rank versus second rank, florid versus deficit, active versus passive, etc.

  2. 2.

    What would be lost if the terms “positive” and “negative” were replaced, say, by some meaningless initials?

  3. 3.

    Are the categories “positive” and “negative” symptom-specific to schizophrenia? Would understanding of other mental disorders be improved by their use? If so, could this extra-understanding be specified? and

  4. 4.

    Is their popularity due only to scientific reasons? In this regard, scientific or “internal” reasons (i.e. those pertaining to the facts of observation), must be distinguished from “external factors” (extra-scientific, non-cognitive, social, etc.) which reflect the power structures controlling fashion in the psychiatric community. Terms may become fashionable not because they add anything to knowledge, but because they are favoured by forceful individuals or by “invisible Colleges” controlling funds, research and publications (Blashfield 1982; Latour 1988).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Addenbrooke’s Hospital (Level 4), Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 2QQ, UK

    G. E. Berrios

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  1. G. E. Berrios
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Psychiatrische Universitätsklinik, Sigmund-Freud-Straße 25, W-5300, Bonn, Germany

    Andreas Marneros

  2. Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa, 500 Newton Road, Iowa City, IO, 52242, USA

    Nancy C. Andreasen MD., Ph. D.

  3. Harvard Departments of Psychiatry and Epidemiology, Brockton/West Roxbury VA Medical Center, 940 Belmont Street, Brockton, MA, 02401, USA

    Ming T. Tsuang MD., Ph. D., D. Sc.

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Berrios, G.E. (1991). Positive and Negative Signals: A Conceptual History. In: Marneros, A., Andreasen, N.C., Tsuang, M.T. (eds) Negative Versus Positive Schizophrenia. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76841-5_2

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