Schizophrenia

Another false belief about schizophrenia, which was especially popular during the 1960s, is that people with schizophrenia are simply “marching to the beat of a different drummer.” R.D.Laing, a Scottish psychiatrist, suggested that people choose to have schizophrenia and that schizophrenia is actually a process through which people try to cure themselves of confusion and unhappiness caused by family problems.

Laing thought that people with schizophrenia should not be given treatment to reduce their symptoms. He believed that if they were simply allowed to go through this process, they would become stronger and less confused. There is no evidence to support this theory, and most schizophrenia researchers today do not take this point of view.