4 Views of Schizoprehina

There are four types of views of schizophrenia. The first one is psychodynamic view which was proposed by Freud in the early 1900’s. When the world is extremely harsh and non-nurturing a person is more prone to develop schizophrenia. The child develops a weak, fragile ego and can’t control their id. The id takes control and then they regress to the pre-ego state of narcissism consequently being extremely self absorbed and concerned with only meeting their own needs. Sometimes they can begin to hallucinate because they are not able to differentiate between their imagination and reality. Freida Fromm Reichmann, a psychodynamic clinician in 1948, developed the theory of schizophrenic mothers. She supported that mothers who were cold, domineering and uninterested in their child’s needs and are more interested in self satisfying their own needs can cause the development of schizophrenia. These two psychodynamic theorists fell out of favor due to the introduction of antipsychotic medications during the 1950’s/1960’s. Also no research supported the mother’s actions as contributing. For example I have a next door neighbor who has a biological sister who has schizophrenia. This neighbor frequently discusses the different type of theories being applied to the care of her mentally ill sister. Her therapists have agreed that her schizophrenia probably developed due to having a cold an aloof bio-mother. Her mother was under mental health care for many years and was finally permanently institutionalized with the diagnosis of schizophrenia. Due to her mother’s diagnosis her therapist feels that the mental illness of the mother was passed to her daughter by genes as well as the mother’s impediment nurturing. She has also has been placed on multiple anti-psychotic drugs.

The behavioral view of schizophrenia is that operant conditioning and the continued reinforcement as the cause of schizophrenia. The behavioral therapists target the symptoms, improves self esteem, social interactions, social functioning and insight. Most people are proficient in responding to social cues. They respond in an acceptable way to satisfy their own needs and achieve their goals. Some people are not reinforced in social cues. They can stop paying attention and loss focus and tune into more irrelevant cues such as how green the grass is or a noise in their environment. The responses become bizarre and they can develop schizophrenia. They most likely can repeat bizarre behavior and they can develop schizophrenia. The sister says that her schizophrenic sister did not pay attention to expectations at home, frequently broke rules, and was frequently punished. As time progressed the sister broke more and more rules (operant conditioning), got into more trouble and was punished more (reinforced). Because of the mother’s mental illness and inadequate parenting the schizophrenic was exposed to operant conditioning and reinforcement.

An existential view focuses with the client trying to live an authentic life by being true to themselves. The theory supports that the schizophrenic life is full of problems due to early childhood experiences and/or particular social situations that caused emotional pain and suffering. The person may feel overwhelmed with reality and therefore experience bizarre behaviors, maybe even self destruction. Stress is placed upon the person to be honest about their own strengths and weaknesses. The person is encouraged to live deliberately not by default. The existential theory supports there are four areas of the schizophrenic’s life. They consist of the physical dimension of their world, their body, health and wellness, social relationships, and spiritual aspects. The neighbor’s sister’s therapist’s view is that the schizophrenia developed because of the severe trauma she experienced as a child due to having a mentally ill mother. The mother’s “craziness” and inconsistent behavior caused her to feel overwhelmed and experience emotional pain and suffering. She therefore began to develop bizarre schizophrenic behavior to help loss herself and not deal with reality.

The cognitive view of schizophrenia is the attempt to understand unusual experiences. Cognitive theorists view the schizophrenic as dysfunctional in their emotions, behaviors and thinking due to biological factors. Friends and relatives try to ignore the schizophrenic’s unusual sensations and then the family attempts to hide the truth. The metal ill person will reject all feedback and develop beliefs that they are being persecuted. The cognitive view attempts to direct them by developing goals. I am not sure if the schizophrenic sister experiences hallucinations because my neighbor will not admit that she does. But I do know that the sister ran away from home, went to Philadelphia to live by herself, wandered the streets, lived in condemned housing, ate out of restaurants garbage cans and reported to adult services due to her behavior. My neighbor states her sister left home because she felt that everyone was against her and treated more harshly than her other siblings.