An analysis of the subjective experience of schizophrenia

To examine how varieties of the subjective experience of schizophrenia (SES) can be categorized, a self-report questionnaire consisting of 150 items from the SES in Japanese was administered to 237 Japanese schizophrenic inpatients, and the results were analyzed through a multivariate method. The first factor represents loss of focus and adequacy of thoughts, behavior, and interpersonal perception; it resembles negative symptoms and coincides with the basic symptoms of schizophrenia reported by anthropological psychiatrists. The second factor represents automatic and excessive thoughts and affective loading, and overlaps "the tremble" of Conrad and the mental automatism of de Clerambault. Both signify different combinations of experiences from conventional descriptive symptoms, and may represent more suitable ways to describe the SES.