Why is schizophrenia so scary and hard to understand?

Breaking News: Woman, 29, charged in unprovoked, fatal stabbing of woman, 36, in drugstore, said voices told her to attack in self-defense. Suspect denies victim is dead and claims to have a micro-chip implanted in her body.

Breaking News: A man was shot fatally by police responding to reports he was running naked down the street waving a sword and shouting “God!” Officers indicated the man ignored orders to lie on the ground and drop the weapon, which turned out to be made of plastic.

I cringe every time one of these events takes place with blanket coverage on the internet, television and radio. Cringe because I immediately begin to wonder if the person involved has schizophrenia. And I cringe as well because these events reinforce the equation of crazed, homicidal danger and mental illness. Which is about the last thing people with schizophrenia need.

Dangerous but gifted and super smart?

Then there are the paradoxical and equally distorted notions that psychosis is linked to giftedness and creativity, notions I have encountered during my 36 years of research and teaching in clinical psychology. A student of mine was defending her doctoral dissertation, which addressed the adjustment difficulties experienced by patients with the illness. An examiner from another department asked: “Isn’t their problem mostly just that they are smarter than everyone else?”

Actually, no, they are not smarter than everyone else. In fact most people with schizophrenia have cognitive impairments, not elevated abilities. Although there are exceptions. A small number have above-average ability but they struggle to do well, challenged by managing their illness and the demands of the social world.

Schizophrenia Science for Everyone

And what causes schizophrenia? Isn’t it genetic? What does it mean to say that an illness “is genetic?” Or is it a “chemical imbalance” in the brain and what exactly is that supposed to mean? Could the way parents treat their children during the first years of life cause the illness? These are questions for science to answer or try to answer. And sometimes what we hear and read in the news media, on TV and on the internet makes it sound like they have been answered, or just about.

Breaking News: “Research study links genetic defect to cause of schizophrenia.”

Okay, maybe it was an interesting study, but more than 100 “genetic defects” have already been linked to the illness. Is this just another one on the pile or is it a real breakthrough? True breakthroughs are few and far between and ordinary science isn’t news. Journalists and reporters like yes/no, black and white categories whereas science advances in small steps and makes mistakes. Once in a while there is a big step. How can we tell the hype from the truth? Research articles are too technical even for well educated people who are not in the field. Enter schizophrenia science for everyone.

This Blog

Schizophrenia. Is there an illness more misunderstood, more subject to fearful associations and misinformation in the public mind?  It is time to set the record straight and provide understandable but science based perspectives and criticism about this most serious and disabling form of mental disorder. And to explain why it is so hard to find the causes and better treatments. That’s what we mean by schizophrenia science for everyone and that’s what this blog is about.