Despite nearly one hundred years of research, very little progress has been achieved in the understanding of schizophrenic behavior. Although it is widely believed that schizophrenic symptoms reflect an underlying biological disorder, the evidence for such a disorder remains disputed and many different biological defects have been implicated. There remains considerable uncertainty even about the fundamental features of the hypothesized illness.
"Reconstructing Schizophrenia subjects the difficult concept of schizophrenia to rigorous scientific, historical, and sociological scrutiny. The contributors, who are all psychologists with considerable research and clinical experience in the field of adult psychopathology, examine the concept of schizophrenia, ask why a biological defect has been assumed in the absence of hard evidence and look at what can be done psychologically to alleviate schizophrenic symptoms. Finally, they explore what new models and research strategies are requiredin order to understand schizophrenic behavior. The result is a book that provides a distinctive and critical perspective on modern psychiatric theories and which demonstrates the severe limitations of an exclusively medical approach to understanding madness.
