# schizophrenia

Pronunciation: say "skit-suh-FREE-nee-uh" US /ˌskɪtsəˈfɹiniə/, UK /skɪtsə(ʊ)ˈfɹiːniə/

## Noun

1. A psychiatric diagnosis for a persistent, often chronic mental illness marked by abnormal perception, thinking, behavior and emotion, often with delusions.
   - Simple: A long-lasting mental illness that changes how a person experiences the world, thinks, feels, and acts, often with false beliefs.
   - _Doctors diagnosed him with schizophrenia after he began hearing voices that no one else could hear._
   - _Researchers are studying whether heavy cannabis use in the teenage years raises the risk of schizophrenia._
2. Dissociative identity disorder, a condition in which a person is supposed to have several distinct personalities, a use of the word now considered incorrect. *(nonstandard)*
   - Simple: A wrong use of the word for a condition where one person seems to have several separate personalities.
   - _In the pulp thriller, the killer's schizophrenia hides a second, gentler self that knows nothing of the murders._
   - _Old science fiction treated schizophrenia as a handy plot device: two personalities in one body, neither aware of the other._
3. A state in which very different or contradictory activities exist side by side, or a failure to decide between options. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A situation where opposite things go on at the same time, or where someone cannot choose.
   - _The band's second album suffers from a certain schizophrenia, lurching between gentle folk songs and loud punk._
   - _The city's planning schizophrenia, widening highways while promoting bike lanes, leaves residents confused._

## Origin

From German Schizophrenie, coined by Eugen Bleuler from Ancient Greek skhízō (“to split”) + phrḗn (“mind, heart, diaphragm”) + English -ia; a combination of schizo- + -phrenia.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/schizophrenia (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).