MAKING SENSE OF SCHIZOPHRENIC SYMPTOMS - DELUSIONAL STATEMENTS AND BEHAVIOR MAY BE FUNCTIONAL IN PURPOSE

The present paper describes the use of a functional analysis in attemp ting to make sense of symptomatic delusional statements and behaviors that people diagnosed with schizophrenia present. The three categories that are used to classify symptoms are: (1) positive reinforcement fu nction, (2) negative reinforcement function, and (3) mislabeling of pr ivate events. The paper presents a number of clinical cases whose symp toms are representative of each category. Each case is then functional ly treated as a result of its ''category'' characteristics, thus basin g treatment on the hypothesized function (or reason) for the symptom. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.