Am J Psychiatry 1981; 138:948-953
Copyright © 1981 by American Psychiatric Association
Beyond diagnosis: the phenomenology of schizophrenia
WT Carpenter Jr, JS Strauss and JJ Bartko
The authors believe that sharp distinctions of schizophrenia based on
cross-sectional signs and symptoms provide the basis for precise and
reliable diagnoses, but they do not believe that diagnoses derived from a
narrow descriptive base are generously informative on the broad range of
human functioning vulnerable to impairment in the course of schizophrenic
illness. They comment on the 12-point flexible diagnostic system,
illustrating the strengths and weaknesses of well-defined but narrow models
for diagnosis, and on the results of testing the predictive validity of
several diagnostic approaches. Finally, they contrast the phenomenologic
approaches to schizophrenic illness with modern-day descriptive psychiatry,
noting implications for clinical practice.
