The Implications of Expressed Emotion in Schizophrenia

The emergence of Schizophrenia can be attributed to many individual factors including biological causes, such as heredity and genetics, sociopsychological influences, like social class, and social factors, namely stressful life events. One particular opinion regarding the aetiology of this illness is Expressed Emotion: a concept which links directly to the emotional atmosphere in the caregivers home, and the feelings conveyed regarding the illness of the dependent (Whittick, 1993). When a Schizophrenic patient goes into convalescence, they are required to be in a stable environment which is low in expressed emotion, otherwise implications, including relapse, are more likely to occur (Vaughn and Leff, 1976).

Schizophrenia is a complex psychological disorder in which the sufferer experiences severe disturbances is cognitive ability, speech, perception, emotion and behaviour (Herz and Marder, 2002). Although Eugene Bleuler first introduced the disorder of Schizophrenia in 1911, it had been documented as being a discrete psychological condition as early as 1887, by Emile Kraepelin (Passer, 2009). A direct translation of Schizophrenia is “split mind” and is ultimately a loss of harmony between various groups of mental functions, often confused with dissociative identity disorder. To be diagnosed with Schizophrenia, the individual must display signs of having a variety of symptoms, for example, delusions of control, hallucinations and catatonia (World Health Organisation, 1993), which fall under the category of positive symptoms. Delusions can be classified as bizarre or nonbizarre, depending on the nature of the delusion. For example, the DSM-IV-TR would consider a delusion that involved a Schizophrenic believing that aliens were co...

... middle of paper ...

...mind and behaviour. London: McGraw Hill.

Pinel, J. P. J. (2006). Biopsychology. (6th ed). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.

Subotnik, K. L., Goldstein, M. J., Nuechterlein, K. H., Woo, S. M., & Mintz, J. (2002). Are Communication Deviance and Expressed Emotion Related to Family History of Psychiatric Disorders in Schizophrenia? Schizophrenia Bulletin. 28(4), pp.719-729

Vaughn, C., & Leff, J. (1976). The measurement of expressed emotion in the families of psychiatric patients. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 15, 157-165.

Whittick, J. E. (1993). Carers of the Dementing Elderly: Coping Techniques and Expressed Emotion. (Unpublished Ph.D Theses). University of Glasgow, Scotland.

World Health Organisation. (1993). The ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders: Diagnosis Criteria for Research. Geneva: Office of Publications.