In Pursuit of Schizophrenia: Reflections on Imprecision in Scientific and Professional Thought and Practice

This volume is a collection of scholarly, editorial, and personal commentaries (Chapters) on "schizophrenia" with special attention directed toward the consequences of "imprecision" in professional and scientific thought and practice because of our failure to accept "schizophrenia" is a construct. A construct is a term, word, concept subject to denotative and connotative semantic abuses and limitations. The reification of a construct in the absence of substantial research confirmation, leads to disorders in our professional and scientific thought and practice, which scholars have termed "epistemopathologies." This is the irony and the tragedy, as "schizophrenia" has acquired widespread acceptance and use as a medical/psychiatric/political diagnostic label. The label serves a mental health industry, but does little to explain or describe the etiology, expressions, and care of individuals assigned the "term." A central issue is the commitment to "reductionism" as a conceptual and methodological pillar for the "mental health industry." Reductionism is an ideology, legitimizing medical solutions for critical widespread social, political, economic, and moral problems. The ideology is apparent in the construct of "schizophrenia," where " utility" arguments for the continued medical diagnoses, treatments, and professional roles, deny issues of validity. This volume explores historical, conceptual, and cultural sources of our continuing use and abuse of the construct of "schizophrenia" as a questionable foundation for a mental health industry, perpetuating and tolerating "imprecision."