Schizophrenia, the illness itself, is referenced back to the Roman Empire Ages or even as far back as the Ancient Egyptian Era. They’re many references to the illness of schizophrenia in the literature of many different cultural and religious texts. English literature was plagued by the ideas of many going mad from hallucinations, demented thoughts and unruly behavior; for example, Shakespeare’ Hamlet and Edgar Allan Poes’ The Cask of Amontillado which both main characters suffer from delusion and hysterical behavior. Although not given a formal name, the discovery of Schizophrenia occurred in the late 19th century, by the psychiatrist named Dr. Emil Kraepelin. “Although Kraepelin’s understanding of schizophrenia was still incomplete his work was pioneering in the way that he distinguished the condition from the other psychotic disorders such as bipolar disorder” (LWS, Acheron Press, p3). Kraepelin’s understanding of the difference between schizophrenia and other debilitating mental illnesses creates the foundation for the actual discovery of Schizophrenia. This term Schizophrenia was not coined until 1911, by a Swedish scientist named Eugen Bleuler, who formed Kraepelin’s idea into the first legitimate diagnosis of Schizophrenia. Throughout the span of decades, many scientists began to come in contact with more cases of Schizophrenia. In the 1930’s in …show more content…
In the British Journal, Dr. Edwin Fuller Torrey wrote an extensive article on the Prevalence Studies in Schizophrenia, and how geographically the prevalence of schizophrenia is affected. Torrey explains that “the result provides strong support to the notion that schizophrenic illness occurs with comparable frequency in different populations (1981)” (Torrey, 598). Torrey’s article means that the prevalence of schizophrenia is based mainly on the location and environment of that specific individual. Over the decades, many psychiatrists speculated the possible causes of schizophrenia; the modern day studies depict that schizophrenia is caused by underlying predisposing factors, along with an emotional or mental “trigger” that causes the mind to snap which can be caused by a number of factors. Many studies indicate the predisposing factors also contribute to the diagnosis of schizophrenia, such as, genetics, complications during pregnancy, infectious agents and migrant origins. Schizophrenia is eluding when discussing its origination, but many psychiatrists believe that genetics play a major role. Biologically there is a percent of chance of experiencing a schizophrenic episode, these chances increase if there is a case of diagnosed schizophrenia in the individuals’ family. According to the LWS organizations’ recent article, in a