Models of Madness

Schizophrenia is disputed territory. Thus, the numerous theories put forth to explain it are of all sorts: biochemical, genetic, religious, psychoanalytic, sociological, crosscultural, interactional, legal, moral, and so forth. These theories resemble, in a curious way, the productions of the schizophrenic patients on whose behalf they are constructed; they tend to be self-involved, and while they often display much internal consistency, they lack any comprehensible relation to each other.