Roses are red
Violets are blue
I am schizophrenic
And so am I
It was funny in primary school, but it’s not anymore. Now that we’re all big people it’s time to use grown-up words. It’s time to use the CORRECT words. It’s time to stop perpetuating the myth that schizophrenia involves a split or dual personaliity.
Here’s an astonishing revelation from one of my law lecturers at uni (published in our Careers Handbook): “So today I lead a schizoid existence: part solicitor and part academic”. And part fucking idiot! Schizophrenia is NOT a general term to describe a duality. Working two jobs does NOT mean you lead a “schizoid existence”.
Schizophrenia is a diagnosable mental illness involving a loss of contact with reality.
Or, if you prefer, schizophrenia " is a disease that makes it difficult for a person to tell the difference between real and unreal experiences, to think logically, to have normal emotional responses to others, and to behave normally in social situtations."
So people, please stop using “schizo” as a slang term to describe a duality (of personality, of style, or whatever). It’s inaccurate. And it’s damn offensive.
Here’s some recent Board examples of inaccurate and offensive misuse of the term “schizo”:**
I don’t mean to pick on specific posters. This is a common misconception. Misuse of the term “schizo” is widespread in society, not just on these boards. However, since this place is apparently about fighting ignorance, how about we make a special effort to use words properly?
Schizophrenia is not the same thing as multiple personality disorder (MPD which, according to some, may be a factitious disorder.) Drives me bananas too!
And Schizoid Personality Disorder is an entirely different thing from schizophrenia. The similar names are confusing, but they were grandfathered in long before it was known that these conditions are not related.
I hate this too and I hate even more when people say that they have OCD when what they really mean is they like to keep their home clean. They should know the torment of OCD for one day and maybe they will shut up.
This is something that really, really, really pisses me off. My father was schizophrenic, as are a couple other relatives and friends. To hear people use “schizophrenic” when what they mean is “split personality” completely creeps me out.
And as long as we’re correcting the misuse of this word, can we have a moratorium on the phrase, “Geez, forget to take your Prozac?” and its derivations. And the corollary implication that Prozac and other SSRIs are “happy pills?” Because I can assure everyone that they aren’t.
Elenfair:
I think the preferred psychiatric term is “apeshit.”
Maybe I’m wrong, but my understanding is that the psychiatric definition of ‘schizophrenia’ has changed a great deal over time, as understanding has advanced, and that the term would not mean the same to a mental health professional today as it would have fifty years ago. As I understand it, it’s only been fairly recently that the psychiatrists have had a good idea of what they meant by the term.
Meanwhile, popular use of the term and its variations has stayed quite consistent over that time, and perhaps for a good deal longer.
Maybe the mental health professionals ought to just coin a new word, and let the rest of us use ‘schizophrenia’ and all its variations as we damned well please. This isn’t France, where there’s an Academy that dictates proper word usage; in America - and I presume in other English-speaking countries as well - we, the people, are the ultimate arbiters of correct usage.
I agree with the OP, but I thought I would clarify something:
Schizophrenia, translated by its roots “schizo” and “phrenia”, literally means “split mind”.
Granted now we know that Multiple Personalities (or DID, as Hastur accurately pointed out) is not the same disorder as Schizophrenia… although there are some forms of schizophrenia which some Psychologists may accidentally misdiagnose as DID, becasue of the auditory hallucinations (voices etc.).
According to some, schizophrenia may also be a factitious disorder.
RTFirefly
They would have you believe that now. Of course, they would have tried to have you believe that back then, too. Go back in time and ask psychiatrists at any point since Emil Kraepelin and they’ll all tell you that at some awful earlier date, we didn’t know diddly about mental illness, and that a lot of psychiatric treatment was unmitigated quackery, but now (regardless of when “now” is) we’ve pretty much got it nailed down and treatment is humane and effective.
The only connection is that “schizo” means “split.” The misuse of the term is just ignorant, not the result of a change in classification.
The definition of schizophrenia has not changed so much over time but rather has become narrower.
You can can continue to use schizophrenia wrongly if you wish. Just be aware that it makes you look ignorant as well as pissing off people who may actually know someone with the condition.
I agree that not all cases of Schizophrenia (or any mental disorder, for that matter) are legit… but there are some forms of schizophrenia which even the best actors in the world could not duplicate. Ex: Catatonic Schizophrenia
I’m a mathematician. We have a fair number of terms that people use ‘wrongly’ in colloquial speech. ‘Uncountable’, ‘discrete’, and stuff like that. You know what? It’s their right. If they aren’t speaking to the American Mathematical Society, then they’re allowed to use those words in a common-English fashion, as opposed to a professional-mathematician fashion. We don’t own the words in the larger world; we can only require ‘correct’ usage of them in our professional journals.
I submit the same standard holds for all learned disciplines, including psychiatry.
A bumper sticker isn’t a professional journal. If that pisses people off, then that’s their problem, AFAIAC.
