PROBLEMS IN THE DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS OF BRAIN DAMAGE AND CHILDHOOD SCHIZOPHRENIA

This article discusses the problems encountered in the differential diagnosis of brain damage and childhood schizophrenia. Differential diagnosis is a task of complex discrimination among a mass of perceptions, according to a framework which organizes the perceptions into distinct classifiable categories. Patterns of perceptions come to have diagnostic identities which are distinguished from one another. Not only do these patterns appear different, consisting of different perceptual units, but they also contain different combinations of perceptions. If Pattern 1 includes A, B, C, and D, Pattern 2 may include A, B, F, and G, and Pattern 3, C, D, F, and G. While the different patterns may have some common elements, the relationship of the perceptions within the patterns is not duplicated, but overlap does exist. The patterns originate when a previously unrelated set of perceptions is organized, usually as an extension of an already accepted theory or system. New organization of perceptions may be considered as a reaction to problem situations requiring understanding for the sake of solution, and serve as a guide for a test of action or treatment. Diagnostic problems in the differentiation of brain damage and childhood schizophrenia exemplify these points. A consideration of the differential diagnostic problems between childhood schizophrenia and “brain damage” shows that the problem is not solely between the diagnoses, but also exists within them, especially in childhood schizophrenia. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)