Lee Yu Sang, Park Ii Ho, Park Seon-Cheol, Kim Jae-Jin, Kwon Jun Soo
Department of Psychiatry, Yong-In Mental Hospital, Yongin, South Korea.
Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, Kwandong University, Gangneung, South Korea.
Asian J Psychiatr. 2014 Apr;8:118-20. doi: 10.1016/j.ajp.2014.01.008. Epub 2014 Jan 30.
The term schizophrenia, which comes from the Greek roots "skhizein" and "phren," was translated as "Jungshinbunyeolbyung" in East Asian Countries, including Japan, Korea, and China. The term literally means "mind-splitting disease." This term has generated a misconception of the disorder as an untreatable chaotic personality, thus instilling stigma and causing suffering in patients and their families. This socio-cultural connotation has impeded medical treatment of schizophrenia. Recent neuroscience research has suggested neural network dysfunction in schizophrenia. Accordingly, a new term, "Johyeonbyung (attunement disorder)", was coined in South Korea. This term literally refers to tuning a string instrument, and metaphorically it describes schizophrenia as a disorder caused by mistuning of the brain's neural network. We expect that the term Johyeonbyung will incite less prejudice and that its metaphoric description of the disorder may help patients to access medical treatment in the early phase. The name of a psychiatric disorder can influence others' attitudes toward patients; thus, discretion is crucial in naming psychiatric disorders.
“精神分裂症”一词源于希腊语词根“skhizein”和“phren”，在包括日本、韩国和中国在内的东亚国家被译为“精神分裂病”。该词字面意思是“心智分裂的疾病”。这个词造成了对这种疾病的误解，认为它是一种无法治疗的混乱人格，从而给患者及其家人带来了污名和痛苦。这种社会文化内涵阻碍了精神分裂症的医学治疗。最近的神经科学研究表明精神分裂症存在神经网络功能障碍。因此，韩国创造了一个新术语“调谐障碍（attunement disorder）”。这个词字面意思是调弦乐器，隐喻地将精神分裂症描述为由大脑神经网络失调引起的疾病。我们期望“调谐障碍”这个术语能减少偏见，并且它对这种疾病的隐喻性描述可能有助于患者在早期阶段获得医学治疗。精神疾病的名称会影响他人对患者的态度；因此，在为精神疾病命名时谨慎至关重要。
