2024-02-06 12:00:06
First introduced in 1911 by the Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler, the term “schizophrenia” comes from the Greek schizo (which means “to split”) and wood (which refers to the mind). The term is today used in psychiatry to designate severe and persistent psychological disorders whose causes are still poorly understood. The negative social representations and the consequences of stigma attached to them are well known and harmful, to the point that the people affected are likely to suffer more from them than from the disorder itself.
The stereotypes and misconceptions that circulate about schizophrenia are still too often relayed by the media, which associate schizophrenia and split personality or duplicity, schizophrenia and violence/criminality, or schizophrenia and extreme dangerousness. Society has therefore constructed a social representation of people suffering from these disorders that is particularly pejorative, far removed from reality and their experiences.
On the form, Jim Van Os – professor of psychiatry at the University of Maastricht, in the Netherlands – believes that it is necessary to change vocabulary to change the way of thinking about schizophrenia, and invited us, in 2009, ours get rid of this term to qualify it. In France, given the outrageous misuse of the word, the ignorance of its definition and its harmful consequences for the people concerned, a change in the terminology is necessary.
Also read the archive (2016): Article reserved for our subscribers Schizophrenia poorly treated by… the media
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Basically, the reliability and scientific validity of the term “schizophrenia” are the subject of heated debate. In March 2012, members of the International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis (ISPS) voted overwhelmingly to change the name of their organization from the International Society for the Psychological Treatments of the Schizophrenias and Other Psychoses . The two main reasons given for the change were that the term “schizophrenia” is stigmatizing and that it is unscientific.
Participation of users and caregivers
Japan is the pioneer country of this approach. In 2002, the word “schizophrenia” – seishin bunretsu byo (“torn disease of the spirit”) – was officially replaced by togo shitcho sho (“integration disorder”). The process, launched in 1992 by the families of users, took ten years to complete. Since then, the proportion of patients informed of their diagnosis has doubled, from 36% in 2002 to 70% in 2004.
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