Types And Classifications Of Mental Illness

Basically mental illness is classified by the severity of its symptoms, by the degree to which they incapacitate the patient for nor­mal living. Broadly and popularly, then, we speak of two major categories of mental illness: psychoses, which are the severe types of mental illness that often require a period of hospitalization; and neuroses, the less ex­treme forms of personality derangement. The difference between psychoses and neuroses is one of degree. The words "psychoneurosis" and   "neurosis"   are   used   interchangeably.

The   psychiatrist, of course,  makes more extensive and exact diagnoses and uses more elaborate descriptions of mental illness. The American Psychiatric Association has a classification of about 60 categories of mental illness, but there is a strong trend toward avoiding categorical diagnosis of mental ill­ness. As Karl Menninger has pointed out, patients recover from their mental illnesses but not from their diagnoses. It is preferable, therefore, to speak of "schizophrenic reac­tions" rather than schizophrenia. Since the diagnosis of mental illness is a job for the psychiatrist, not the college student, we shall limit the further description of mental ill­nesses to the few broadest types.

Schizophrenia, sometimes called dementia praecox, is the most common of the serious mental illnesses and the one for which hospi­talization is most often required. Literally the term means "split personality." Emotional disorganization is the hallmark of this condi­tion. The victims may be unaccountably sad or happy; they do not respond appropriately to real-life situations; they are withdrawn and usually apathetic; they are ready to day­dream their lives away; they often suffer from fantastic delusions and hallucinations. Delu­sions are false-fixed ideas; hallucinations are imaginary voices or visions.

Some schizophrenics act and talk silly and childishly, without orientation to time and place; others fall into a stupor or a state of muscular rigidity; still others go into a frenzy of excitement or overactivity. But mostly they withdraw draw from reality, and attempt to live in little worlds of their own.

Generally speaking, schizophrenics do not lose their mental capacities, as measured by I.Q. tests, but their intelligence is divorced from other phases of their personality. Schizo­phrenia usually develops gradually and is gen­erally apparent before the age of 40. The outlook for schizophrenic patients has im­proved in recent years.

Important recent research in the cause and treatment   of   schizophrenia   offers   greater promi.se than ever before of a "break-through" in the management of this tragic and crip­pling illness. For example, an unusual serum factor has been found in the blood of many schizophrenics. This suggests the possibility of an antiserum or other drug to combat the illness. Progress is also being made in ac­quiring basic information about childhood schizophrenia and ways of treating it  partially through family interviewing and counseling. When the disease appears in young children (under six), it is important to distinguish between childhood schizophrenia and mental retardation The schizophrenia may be curable.

Paranoia describes a state of mental illness characterized by persistent delusions of gran­deur or persecution. It is related to schizophre­nia but far less common. Many paranoiacs are "rational" on all subjects except one or two on which they have some irrational fixed idea. There are many paranoid personalities among people who are not hospitalized for mental illness. Adolf Hitler, for example, was one of the world's most dangerous paranoiacs.