Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness. People who suffer from it are unable to relate their thoughts and feelings to what is happening around them and often withdraw from society.
schizophrenia in British English
(ˌskɪtsəʊˈfriːnɪə)
noun
1.
any of a group of disorders characterized by progressive deterioration of the personality, withdrawal from reality, hallucinations, delusions, social apathy, emotional instability, etc
catatonia, hebephrenia, paranoia
2. informal
behaviour that appears to be motivated by contradictory or conflicting principles
a major mental disorder of unknown cause typically characterized by a separation between the thought processes and the emotions, a distortion of reality accompanied by delusions and hallucinations, a fragmentation of the personality, motor disturbances, bizarre behavior, etc., often with no loss of basic intellectual functions
this term has largely replaced dementia praecox, since it does not always result in deterioration (dementia) or always develop in adolescence or before maturity (praecox)
2. nontechnical term for
multiple personality disorder
3. Informal
a situation, state of mind, etc. in which widely conflicting opinions, ideas, or practices coexist, often resulting in indecision, vacillation, wavering, etc.