Schizophrenia simplex and delusion: historical aspects and recent conceptions

Abstract

The authors trace the historical development of some issues relating to the “simplex schizophrenia” definition from the point of view of nosographic psychopathology. They analyze the theme of “negative” and “positive” (as they have been defined starting from John Hughlings Jackson’s dual pathogenesis concept), autism, the origins of delusion and its relation to the dream. In particular, they discussed the hypothesis that the “trouble générateur” of paucisintomatic schizophrenia does not provide for the presence of delusion but is linked to a pre-objective and pre-verbal pathological “intentionality”. And lastly, with the help of Massimo Fagioli’s Theory of Human Birth, they explored delusional thinking of the simplex schizophrenia which may be latent, and which is up to a psychiatrist to make explicit.