In your opinion, does schizophrenia...

Excerpt of an interview between Peter Van Sant (PVS refers to Peter Van Sant) and Dr. Jeffrey Schaler, PH.D.

PVS: In your opinion, does schizophrenia exist as a result of disease?
JS: Schizophrenia does not exist as a real disease. Schizophrenia refers to
certain kinds of abnormal or embarrassing or disturbing behaviors. Diseases
are physical or cellular irregularities. The difference is significant.
PVS: Is there such a thing as a mental illness?
JS: There is no such thing as mental illness in the way that cancer, diabetes,
or syphilis exist. Mental illness refers to socially unacceptable behaviors.
There is no disease called mental illness, there is no disease called
schizophrenia or depression in the way that diabetes and cancer exist.
PVS: In the case that we’re looking at involving Jeremy…, he heard
voices, he had hallucinations, he was diagnosed as having schizophrenia. If it’s not schizophrenia, what is it?
JS: First of all, everyone hears voices. It’s called thinking. We have a
conscience. That’s an inner voice. Now what Jeremy is claiming is that these
voices are separate from him. I don’t know what he actually experienced—no
one can know exactly what he experiences. He’s making certain claims about
what he experiences and, he may be lying, he may have difficulty in
differentiating between his own thought processes or what others call hearing
voices. He demonstrates some kind of socially unacceptable behavior and that
behavior is labeled as schizophrenia but there is no disease that Jeremy had
called schizophrenia. This is an attempt by psychiatrists and other mental health
professionals to explain why he did what he did.