Beyond diagnosis: the phenomenology of schizophrenia

The authors believe that sharp distinctions of schizophrenia based on cross-sectional signs and symptoms provide the basis for precise and reliable diagnoses, but they do not believe that diagnoses derived from a narrow descriptive base are generously informative on the broad range of human functioning vulnerable to impairment in the course of schizophrenic illness. They comment on the 12-point flexible diagnostic system, illustrating the strengths and weaknesses of well-defined but narrow models for diagnosis, and on the results of testing the predictive validity of several diagnostic approaches. Finally, they contrast the phenomenologic approaches to schizophrenic illness with modern-day descriptive psychiatry, noting implications for clinical practice.