1. Kurt Schneider

2. Schneider: The Psychotic Experience
Interested in pathognomonic symptoms
“First Rank Symptoms” (FRS)
E.g., voices commenting
Voices arguing
Thought insertion
Involve a loss of the sense of autonomy of self, or “ego boundaries”

3. Importance of Schneiderian Ideas
Discrete phenomena—clearly pathological or “bizarre”
Discontinuous from normality
Potentially for good reliability
Ideal for objective criterion-based systems

4. Schneiderian Influences on Diagnostic Systems
Incorporated into Present State Examination (PSE)
Used in International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia (IPSS)
Influenced the International Classification of Disease (ICD)
Influenced the US Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)

5. Fundamental Questions about Schizophrenia
What are the characteristic symptoms?
What are the boundaries of the concept?
Is the disorder a single illness or multiple disorders?
If multiple, what are the subtypes?

6. Characteristic Symptoms
Schneider: specific types of delusions and hallucinations
Bleuler: fragmented thinking, inability to relate to external world
Kraepelin: emotional dullness, avolition, loss of inner unity