Schizophrenia Research Trends

28Reiko Koide and Akira TamaokaCase BMiss B was a 46-year-old woman. She was a third of four children in the family of apublic official. She suffered from tuberculosis in the junior high school. One day she wasmade a fun of by her classmates and refused to go to school. At the age of sixteen, she beganto speak in monologues and to spend almost all day in bed. She showed delusions andhallucinations, and entered into the hospital when she was seventeen years old.In the interview, she said, “I have been suffering from hallucinations everyday for twentyor thirty years. I hear the voice of a middle-aged woman, and she always says bad thingsabout me. It causes severe pain in my shoulder. But I still continue knitting. When I brush myteeth, I feel like I am dying. When I am in bed, and also I am walking, germs move andfrighten me, and dogs and cats are lying on me. All animals are transparent so that I cannotsee them but they certainly exist.”She presented feelings of “being pressed” in 3 responses among a total of 7. ”A calfoppressed by a fixed butterfly” (Card II). “Human beings are pressed down with their handson the floor” (Card III). “A crab which is compressed, narrow in width” (Card X). She alsoshowed an image of becoming a mass in the response, “A rat, there are no legs” to Card VIII.Case CMr. C was a 55-year-old man. He was born the fourth child of a wealthy family inTokyo. His father owned a company, and he went to private school. When he was inuniversity, in the first year, he went to a supermarket with the group of his friends to stealsome small things. He was expelled from the university. Since then, he complained of anxietyat meeting people, and visited many clinics for medication and psychotherapy, but hegradually came to stay at home almost all day. When he was 22 years old, he entered thehospital with prominent delusions and hallucinations.In the interview, the patient said, “I suffer from nightmares every night. It is a dream ofhell and I feel I cannot survive any more with these ominous ideas. I cannot concentrate. I amslow in thinking. And I have become old-fashioned. Somebody is talking ill of me. I feelsuspected as a criminal every time a crime is broadcast on the television. It is because I knowthe names of the criminals, so that this is my referential delusion.”He showed five human movement responses, none of which identified the agent. “Hittingeach other with both hands” (Card I), “Washing” (Card III), “Dancing” (Card VI), “Beingastonished (Card VII), and “Talking, with each other” (Card X). He also showed overclarificationof ages in his human percepts, as “old” (Card II), “middle-aged” (Cards III, X),and “young” (Card VII). These estimations of age without evidence suggest the possibilitythat there might be strong conflict in his subjective inability to experience time, from whichhe feels excluded.Case DMiss D is a 28-year-old woman. She was the second of two children of a family of anartisan in Ibaraki Prefecture. When she was 16 years old, she felt that her classmates aretalking ill of her so she refused to go to school. She once consulted with a psychologist. Aftershe graduated from high school, she went to Tokyo and worked for a large company there forfive years. When her mother got sick, she came back home to see her mother. Soon after her