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Schizophrenia - moving from horror to hope
Medical science has made strides in treating this complex mental disorder, which once involved infecting patients with malaria and blamed inconsistent mothers for the condition. Today, underscoring the message of hope in this year's Schizophrenia Awareness Week, much can be done and there are lessons, too, in learning to keep faith with the patient.
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Schizophrenia - that most severe of mental disorders - exists in every race, every culture and every level of society, and is probably as old as humankind, though known perhaps under different names depending on the culture.
The term "schizophrenia" only came into existence in the early 20th century when it was coined by Eugen Bleuler, a Swiss-German psychiatrist. A contemporary of Sigmund Freud, Bleuler took charge of a mental asylum near Zurich and spent his years there observing and talking to his patients, and kept copious records of them.
