n.The most major of mental illnesses is schizophrenia, a psychoticillness, where the patient is out of touch with reality. In this disease, thoughtsmay be deranged or delusions without basis may arise. The individual tendsto withdraw from their already little social contact. They becomeunresponsive and lose interest in normal activities. Emotionally, they can beirritable, angry, aggressive, and even violent at times. At other times, theycan have an obsession with death, or voices can be heard or visions seen. The reasons for this change often appear unexplainable to relatives andfriends. Some try to explain this new behavior as due to stresses, past orpresent, especially from interpersonal difficulties and mishaps. It is generallya devastating illness, troublesome to the patient and painful to the relativesand sometimes offensive to society. (Chong, 1)William Shakespeares literary opus Hamlet is an adventure story ofthe highest quality, a tale of the psychological trials of a man who is isolatedfrom the society he must live in, and a portrait of a family driven to bloodyand gruesome murder by one mans lust for power (King, 1). In his essayHamlet: A Riddle in Greatness, Louis Kronenberger states that even onthe surface, Hamlet remains among the greatest of unsolved psychologicalmysteries, and the one that has been provided with the most solutions (1).The theme of madness in Hamlet has been one of great discussion; there ismuch conflicting evidence that can be found when trying to prove the validityof the claim to Hamlets true madness.The patient, Hamlet, prince of Denmark, has been diagnosed withschizophrenia due to his erratic, sometimes irrational behavior. Ever sincethe death of his father, King Hamlet, young Hamlet has been what appearedto be in a state of madness. This case study on Hamlets condition will citemany instances in William Shakespeares Hamlet in which the patient hasacted in a schizophrenic, meaning mad, manner...
