SCHIZOPHRENIA AS FEATURED IN NEUE ZURCHER ZEITUNG

Social representations of mental illness and psychiatry are largely in fluenced by mass media, This study explores the use of the term ''schi zophrenia'' in the Swiss newspaper NZZ in 1994 and 1995, the text of w hich is, available on CD-ROM. In 31% of the cases the term is used fig uratively, i.e, as a metaphor, When used as a name of an illness, it r eflects contradictory connotations: schizophrenics as mentally ill off enders or criminal in the local columns, schizophrenics featuring as c reative writers or artists in the cultural columns. Information on sch izophrenia as disease is rare, If it does occur, reporting is rather s ociopsychiatric than neurobiological.