The conquest of "schizophrenia:" Sisyphus revisited.

Despite the fact that the diagnosis of schizophrenia, or dementia praecox, has been in use for over 80 years, there remains a great lack of clarity about the nature of this "disease." An impressive array of clinical and experimental data has been accumulated which pertains to the characteristics of "schizophrenics" but there are virtually no data which are schizophrenia specific. Quite to the contrary, the emerging picture is one of a complex and interacting field of several continuous dimensions or factors. Three underlying factors are suggested in an ad hoc fashion; the internal environment, the physical environment, and the human environment. It is suggested that these basic dimensions and their interactions over time should be the object of further investigation and definition, hopefully developing more adequate and productive description of clinical syndromes, rather than continuing the preoccupation with "schizophrenia" as a diagnostic label.