The Meaning of Basic Symptoms for the Genesis of the Schizophrenic Nuclear Syndrome

In the Bonn Transition Sequences study, the development of the Schneiderian first rank symptoms in their exact chronological order was studied from the first symptomatological precursors up to the complete forms of the respective psychotic final phenomena. At their onset, subjective experiences of preexisting disorders of perception, thinking, speech and memory, of cognitive control of action and of proprioception were found. These four groups of initial deficiencies developed via certain intermediate phenomena into first rank symptoms. The analysis of these transition sequences revealed three phases with different generating factors each. Altogether, the results showed that and how the gap between the deficiency findings of the biologically oriented research in schizophrenia and the diagnostically relevant changes in experience can be bridged.