DEVELOPMENTAL ROOTS OF SCHIZOPHRENIA
J. S. KASANIN M. D.1
1 Director, Department of Psychiatry, Mount Zion Hospital, San Francisco; Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of California Medical School
1. A diagnosis of schizophrenia rests partly on the data obtained from the mental status and observation of the patient; and to a greater degree on a history disclosing a faulty development of a special personality developing this particular disease entity.
2. It occurred to the author that a more intensive study of the genetic factors may help not only in aiding the diagnosis of schizophrenia but also to explain the content of schizophrenic thought.
3. A study of certain regressive phenomena in schizophrenia recalls a close analogy with certain dominant ideas in early child development.
4. A young child in his development goes through stages when he feels omnipotent, when he is not sure as to what will be his ultimate sex, and he has a feeling that adults know his thoughts.
5. The very same ideas appear in greater elaboration in schizophrenia, thus schizophrenics frequently express ideas of omnipotence, being endowed with great power, and somehow being mixed up with great cosmic events; they are very often confused as to whether they are men or women, and frequently express the idea that other people read their thoughts.
5. A greater knowledge of thinking of children may give us further clues in the understanding of schizophrenia as a disorder in which an individual regresses to earlier phases in his development.
