University of Zurich, Switzerland
Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics
In the history of psychiatry, "schizophrenia" has often been portrayed as the discipline's pars pro toto, which prototypically represents mental illness as such and which draws together the fundamental questions concerning psychiatric... more
Background The term ‘difficult’ is pervasively used in relation to medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) and patients with MUS. This article scrutinises the use of the term by analysing interview data from a study of secondary care... more
Etwa zwischen 5 und 28 % aller Menschen machen die Erfahrung, dass sie einmal, mehrmals oder auch regelmäßig in Abwesenheit eines äußeren Stimulus eine Stimme hören [1]. Dieser Erfahrung, für manche leidvoll, für andere alltäglich oder... more
The conceptual history of schizophrenia is marked by considerable dissent about its nosological status, and the question of whether it represents a distinct disease entity remains hotly debated. Another recurring feature in the conceptual... more
The introduction of the term and concept schizophrenia earned its inventor, Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler, worldwide fame. Prompted by the rejection of the main principle of Kraepelinian nosology, namely prognosis, Bleuler's belief... more
Involuntary hospitalization is a frequently discussed intervention physicians must sometimes execute. Because this intervention has serious implications for the citizens' civil liberties it is regulated by law. Every country's... more
- by Anke Maatz