The concept of schizophrenia: clarifying the debates and understanding its use

Section A is a mapping literature review, aimed at clarifying the nature of the debates around the concept of schizophrenia. It also explicates the role UK clinical psychology has played in these debates. It found that there is a diversity and complexity to the positions taken that reaches across professions, with clinical psychology having contributed both to the resistance and persistence of the concept. An asymmetry within the schizophrenia debates – where those who critique the concept do so explicitly, but the rationale of those who use the concept remains implicit – characterises publications both within, and outside UK clinical psychology.

Section B examines how the concept of schizophrenia is currently used in clinical practice. A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis of eight interviews with mental health professionals identified two main ways of talking about ‘schizophrenia’: as an object of scientific enquiry, and as a physical condition. The concept was spoken about with great flexibility, however, with participants referring to it in a variety of sometimes conflicting ways. When relaying how they talk to service users about the concept, participants spoke in considerably less flexible ways.