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Schizophrenia: Psychosocial Factors

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Contemporary Psychiatry

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Abstract

The effect of psychosocial factors on the occurrence of schizophrenia and its course has been a subject of scientific investigation for just over 100 years. According to Kraepelin’s view (1896), schizophrenia was caused by a (biological) disease process inevitably ending in “dementia” (Verblödung). Nonetheless, by the mid-twentieth century, it had become clear that the observed disease manifestations and behavioral abnormalities often did not, in fact, evolve in a uniformly negative way, even though this had been the conclusion of studies of long-term hospitalized patients around the turn of the century. Rather, it was found that they were subject to considerable influence from the custodial living conditions under which the patients were cared for (Wing and Freudenberg 1961; Wing and Brown 1970). The recognition that the patient’s social environment can have a major effect on the course of severe mental illnesses, particularly schizophrenia, was an important motivating factor for the worldwide reforms in the care of the mentally ill that took place in the second half of the twentieth century.

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Authors
  1. W. Rössler
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Zentralinstitut für Seelische Gesundheit, P.O. Box 12 21 20, 68072, Mannheim, Germany

    Fritz Henn

  2. Belle-Idée, Bâtiment Salève, Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève, 2, chemin du Petit-Bel-Air, 1225, Chêne-Bourg/Genève, Switzerland

    Norman Sartorius

  3. Psychiatrische Klinik, Freie Universität Berlin, Eschenallee 3, 14050, Berlin, Germany

    Hanfried Helmchen

  4. Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technische Universität München, Ismaninger Straße 22, 81675, München, Germany

    Hans Lauter

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Rössler, W. (2001). Schizophrenia: Psychosocial Factors. In: Henn, F., Sartorius, N., Helmchen, H., Lauter, H. (eds) Contemporary Psychiatry. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-59519-6_93

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-59519-6_93

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-64007-0

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