Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a debilitating, often chronic, mental disorder characterized by disturbances in thinking, perception, emotion, and social relationships. The term schizophrenia, which literally means "split mind," was first applied by Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in 1911 to describe individuals whose thoughts were split from their emotions, leading to a disintegration of normal personality. Unfortunately, Bleuler's intended meaning is often lost on the lay public, which tends to equate schizophrenia with multiple personality disorder (also called dissociative identity disorder), an unrelated condition that typically shares few features with schizophrenia.