On 24/11/2011 4:33 PM, Tom Leinster wrote:
Dear Sebastian,
There are some people, including me, who are troubled by the term "schizophrenic" and want to replace it. Mental health groups go to some effort to persuade journalists not to use the word in the casual way they sometimes do; schizophrenia is of course a serious and often frightening condition, and it doesn't help when people use language in a way that perpetuates an inaccurate stereotype.
If schizophrenia, in a medical rather than etymological sense, actually referred to split personality, there would be some point to the term, and the debate would have some weight on both sides - especially as the usage is not derogatory. But as it's inaccurate, I think a more descriptive replacement would be in order. Robert Dawson [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]