schizophrenicadj.n.

1912 Bleuler in Amer. Jrnl. Insanity LXIX. 874 When we look more closely we find amongst all normal people many and important instances where thought is divorced both from logic and from reality. I have called these forms of thinking autistic, corresponding to the idea of schizophrenic autismus.

1927 D. K. Henderson & R. D. Gillespie Text-bk. Psychiatry ix. 218 It is now generally recognised that although a schizophrenic type of disturbance is always most serious, there are certain cases which can, and do, readjust themselves.

1931 Times Lit. Suppl. 17 Sept. 692/4 Professor Kretschmer manages to convey the impression that all philosophers and tragedians are schizophrenic, or at least ‘schizoid’.

1945 Times 28 Sept. 7/5 He was schizophrenic long before the thing became fashionable, half of him being entirely rational, the other half living in a world in which it was taken for granted that pigs have wings.

1973 I. L. Child Humanistic Psychol. ix. 137 Laing and Esterson..argue that schizophrenic behavior appears in these patients as a somewhat sensible response to an extremely difficult situation.

1974 R. Passmore & J. S. Robson Compan. Med. Stud. III. xxxv. 55/2 Other examples are the ‘schizophrenic smile’, which appears without obvious external cause and is presumed to be a response to an internal hallucinatory stimulus, and the ‘schizophrenic handshake’, the patient's hand when grasped remaining limp.

1981 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 24 Jan. 313/3 While drugs have certainly facilitated the extramural care of schizophrenic patients the minimisation of prolonged inpatient treatment has, to a large extent, been due to social measures and to changes in attitude within the psychiatric services.

1955 Sci. Amer. Oct. 113/1 The behavior of the puzzled Board reflected its schizophrenic task. The members performed as part jury, part judge, and then as part administrative agency, engaged in a part rule-making, part quasi-judicial proceeding.

1960 Times 13 June 14/1 It was a schizophrenic day when nearly every player seemed to live two lives.

1962 A. Lurie Love & Friendship viii. 155 You're not living two different lives that don't match... For me it's absolutely impossible. It's schizophrenic.

a1974 R. Crossman Diaries (1977) III. 71 We are all deeply schizophrenic on this Bill, hate the interference, hate the break with the trade unions, yet we can see that without it there must be a higher level of unemployment than we can tolerate.

1978 M. Shanks What's Wrong with Mod. World? iii. 45 In their reaction to inflationary pressures government have been..schizophrenic. On the one hand they have sought..to fight them. On the other hand they have felt obliged to compensate the victims.

1980 Daily Tel. 24 July 11/5 The work is schizophrenic in its switches of style from geniune opera-drama to operetta and then to the typical vehicle for a soprano anxious and able to sing Ophelia's mad scene.