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Schizophrenia Paper

In: Philosophy and Psychology

Submitted By edreeder7
Words 1565
Pages 7
PSYC 100

“I’m not a Schizophrenic, I have Schizophrenia!”
December 7, 2011

The movie that I have chosen to write about is called “Identity” with John Cusack, Ray Liotta, and Amanda Peete as the big names. Its focus is on an inmate who is 24 hours from being executed. His defense team is giving it one last attempt to prove he has schizophrenia and was not aware of the murders he committed. The movie does not give much backdrop into the causes or symptoms, but shows one method of treatment. I will explain the symptoms, causes, treatments, and some other useful information on this disease. The best place to start is symptoms of Schizophrenia. They are broken down into 3 main categories. Positive symptoms are psychotic behaviors not seen in people without the disease. These people often “lose touch” with reality and these symptoms can come and go. Hallucinations are things that the person can see, smell, or hear but nobody else can. Hearing “voices” is one of the most common of these. The voices supposedly talk to the person suffering from schizophrenia by ordering them to do things, warn them of danger, or discuss their behavior. In the movie, the character had created several different types of people who all talked to him differently and pushed the character in different directions whether to act in a positive or negative way. Delusions are things the person may believe but are not true. Such as everyone talking on a cell phone must be listening to my thoughts or watching me. Sometimes these people will believe they are someone else altogether. Another type of positive symptom is called thought disorders which are an unusual or dysfunctional way of thinking. These people will stop talking in the middle of a sentence. IT has been seen on movies where it’s almost like another person has entered their body and a new train of thought takes

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