The author traces the history of the concept of schizophrenic psychoses
from Kraepelin's differentiation of dementia praecox from other mental
illness and Bleuler's formulation of schizophrenia through the delimitation
of the definition of schizophrenia to current thought on the etiology,
treatment, and outcome of schizophrenic psychoses. He stresses the
importance of our knowledge of both psychological and hereditary factors
and urges that rather than searching only for a single, causal metabolic
error we also accept the possibility that schizophrenia occurs in highly
human, spiritual spheres and consider the schizophrenogenic influences in
the lives and personalities of individual patients.Abstract Teaser