Schizophrenic Pathology in Young Adults

This is the first presentation of a research program to determine the "what" of schizophrenia and its categories using multidisciplinary approaches on the same patients repeatedly over time (probably for at least a decade). Rated taped interviews of 105 patients reveal the following in young first-break schizophrenics: thinking disorder even though subtle, striking anhedonia, strong characterological dependency, a noteworthy impairment in competence, and an exquisitely vulnerable sense of self-regard. We believe that these qualities are manifestations of a basic dysfunction in maintaining organization necessary for appropriate, adaptive orientation to one's surrounding and to oneself. Phenomenological studies in depth, extent, and in quantity will be crosshatched with biological, psychological, family, social, and cultural investigations on the same patients including, nonschizophrenic disturbed persons and healthy persons.