Social construction of schizophrenia

Social constructionism, a branch of sociology, queries commonly held views on the nature of reality, touching on themes of normality and abnormality within the context of power and oppression in societal structures. The concept of a social construction of schizophrenia, within a social construction of health and illness notary form, denotes that the label of 'schizophrenia' is one that has been socially constructed through ideological systems, none of which are truly empirical especially as currently there is no definitive evidence as to the cause(s) of schizophrenia.

In 1966, Berger and Luckman coined the term social constructionism in their work The Social Construction of Reality. In summary it examines the basis of fact and truth / knowledge within culture. Whilst some 'truths' such as 'fire is hot' are universally agreed as objective, many others considered 'fact' are the result of a common subjective experience and the subsequent validation of that.

Schizophrenia is one such term that can be viewed as a social construction. Walker has argued that psychiatric diagnoses are nothing but linguistic abstractions. He has criticized the DSM-IV's poor reliability and postulated that terms like 'schizophrenia' and 'mental illness' only exist by consensus and persist by convention. Further he argues that the pathologizing language which persists in the medical model of disability is unuseful in working towards a recovery model.

Other notable practitioners and authors within the humanistic tradition that have viewed schizophrenia as a social construction include psychiatrist Thomas Szasz (1920–2012), Joseph Berke, R.D. Laing, Erich Fromm and Mary Barnes. Szasz viewed the diagnoses as a fabrication that is borderline abusive in terms of treatment. Szasz has protested against the taxonomic classifications of mental illness and reification of these as 'science' and has long argued against institutionalisation as a fundamental deprivation of liberty. In Berke's and Barnes's book two accounts of a journey through madness, Berke explores themes of psychosis as an enriching experience. Berke argues that the invalidation of schizophrenic experiences labelled 'sick or mad' is a uniquely western standpoint insofar as dream states and altered perception are not considered valid modes of interpolation of the truth within westernised culture.

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