ucinations), inferential thinking (delusions), motivation (avolition), and thought and speech (alogia); which sometimes comes on suddenly. However, usually the illness develops slowly over months or even years. At first, the symptoms may not be noticed or may be confused with those of other conditions. “Schizophrenia is characterized by a constellation of distinctive and predictable symptoms. The symptoms that are generally associated with the disease are called positive “psychotic” symptoms, which denote the presence of grossly abnormal behavior. These abnormal behaviors include thought disorder, delusions, and hallucinations” (Frith, 1995). The positive symptoms of schizophrenia are among its most striking features and they are the most difficult to understand. Hearing voices talking to you, experiencing alien thoughts being inserted into your mind, and believing that alien forces are controlling your most trivial actions are as well outside the normal range of experience. In addition, such experiences are very rarely reported by neurological patients. In consequence, neuropsychological tests relevant to the cognitive processes underlying these symptoms have not yet been developed (Andreasen, 1999). Delusions are common among individuals with schizophrenia. These are false beliefs that appear obviously untrue to other people. An affected person “begins to believe that people are reading their minds or plotting against them, that others are secretly monitoring and threatening them, or that they can control their people’s thoughts” (Andreasen, 1999). Hallucinations can be heard, seen, or even felt; most often they take the form of voices heard only by the afflicted person. Among the most prevalent symptoms associated with schizophrenia are auditory hallucinations, which are not simply words. “The patient hears people talking to him or about him. The experience has all the qualities of real...
