schizophrenias

Noun

schizophrenia (countable and uncountable, plural schizophrenias)

1. A psychiatric diagnosis denoting a persistent, often chronic, mental illness characterised by abnormal perception, thinking, behavior and emotion, often marked by delusions.
   • Increasing data suggests that regular marijuana use in adolescence may also be a risk factor for developing very serious psychotic disorders, especially schizophrenia.2014 January 24, Dr. Charles Raison, “Here’s what to do about your anxiety”, in CNN, archived from the original on 29 May 2022
2. (proscribed) A condition in which a person is supposed to have several distinct personalities; dissociative identity disorder.
   • You have enough money to afford schizophrenia for a while. Especially if the personality B dreams up things that personality A makes practical, financially advantageous use of.1946, George O. Smith, “Trouble”, in Astounding Science-Fiction
3. (figuratively, informal) Any condition in which disparate or mutually exclusive activities coexist; a lack of decision between options.
   • [O]ne can understand how the cultural disorientation which beset the African Continent has confused Africa's political behaviour, creating a political schizophrenia that made nation-building impossible.2006, Bertus Praeg, Ethiopia and Political Renaissance in Africa, page 213