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Schizophrenia
Definitions
- 1 A psychiatric diagnosis denoting a persistent, often chronic, mental illness characterised by abnormal perception, thinking, behavior and emotion, often marked by delusions. countable, uncountable
"Increasing data suggests that regular marijuana use in adolescence may also be a risk factor for developing very serious psychotic disorders, especially schizophrenia."
- 2 any of several psychotic disorders characterized by distortions of reality and disturbances of thought and language and withdrawal from social contact wordnet
- 3 A condition in which a person is supposed to have several distinct personalities; dissociative identity disorder. countable, proscribed, uncountable
"You have enough money to afford schizophrenia for a while. Especially if the personality B dreams up things that personality A makes practical, financially advantageous use of."
- 4 Any condition in which disparate or mutually exclusive activities coexist; a lack of decision between options. countable, figuratively, informal, uncountable
"[O]ne can understand how the cultural disorientation which beset the African Continent has confused Africa's political behaviour, creating a political schizophrenia that made nation-building impossible."
Etymology
From German Schizophrenie (coined by Eugen Bleuler), from Ancient Greek σχίζω (skhízō, “to split”) + φρήν (phrḗn, “mind, heart, diaphragm”) + English -ia. A combination of schizo- + -phrenia.
See also for "schizophrenia"
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