Impact of the term schizophrenia on the culture of ideograph: The Japaneseexperience

The ideographic Chinese writing system (in use in Asian countries that acco unt for about a quarter of the world's population) directly expresses the m eaning of schizophrenia as "the disease of disorganized mind." The term dir ectly challenges a deeply ingrained concept of personal autonomy, and this is stigmatizing, Japanese psychiatrists are thus reluctant to tell their pa tients that they are suffering from schizophrenia, and, as a result, no mor e than 20 percent of sufferers actually do know about their diagnosis. Beca use taking medication is based on informed consent and the exercise of the patient's autonomy, such lack of information has important negative effects . It is unlikely that this problem can be resolved by education or informat ion alone, and it may well be the case that in cultures using ideographs, t he illness will need to be renamed. This article suggests some alternatives .