28.1 VARIETIES OF SELF DISORDER: A BIO-PHENO-SOCIAL MODEL OF SCHIZOPHRENIA

Abstract

The self-disorder model offers a unifying way of conceptualizing schizophrenia’s highly diverse symptoms (positive, negative, disorganized), of capturing their distinctive bizarreness, and of conceiving their longitudinal development. These symptoms are viewed as differing manifestations of an underlying disorder of ‘core-self’: hyperreflexivity/diminished-self presence with accompanying disturbances of “grip” or “hold” on reality. We have recently revised and tested this phenomenological model, in particular distinguishing primary versus-secondary factors, in offering a bio-pheno-social model of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. The revised model is consistent with recent empirical findings..