Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by persistent defects in the perception or the expression of reality. A person experiencing untreated schizophrenia typically demonstrates disorganized thinking, and may also experience delusions or auditory hallucinations. Although the disorder mainly affects cognition, it can also contribute to chronic problems affecting behavior and emotions (White, Harvey, Opler & Lindenmayer 1997). Due to the several possible combinations of symptoms, it is difficult to say whether it is in fact a single psychiatric disorder; psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler deliberately called the disease "The Schizophrenias" when he coined the present name. Psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin was the first to note a difference between what he had termed dementia praecox ("premature dementia") and other psychotic illnesses (Silverstein, Kovács, Corry & Valone 2000). In 1911, "dementia praecox" was renamed "Schizophrenia" by Bleuler, who found Kraepelin's term to be......
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