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   From: iain@XXXXX.demon.co.uk (Iain L M Hotchkies)   
   Newsgroups: uk.misc,uk.legal,uk.politics,uk.media,soc.culture.british   
   Subject: Corley FAQ (v0.1)   
   Reply-To: iain@XXXXX.demon.co.uk   
   Date: Sat May  4 19:30:34 1996   
      
   Mike Corley FAQ   
   version 0.1   
   first edition 5th May 1996   
   last updated 5th May 1996   
   Iain L M Hotchkies iain@XXXXX.demon.co.uk   
      
   Mike Corley is a 'net personality' who has been active on the following   
   newsgroups (uk.misc,uk.legal,uk.politics,uk.media,soc.culture.british)   
   since....? Well, at least as far back as the summer of 1995.   
      
   He posts long tracts, the tone of which approximates that which one   
   might expect from a reasonably intelligent paranoid schizophrenic.   
      
   No details are known of Mike's 'real' personal life or background.   
   Once would presume that he came from a reasonable family and was   
   reasonably well educated before the first symptoms of schizophrenia   
   began.   
      
   Schizophrenia: Clinical features   
   (from the Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry, 2nd Edition)   
      
   The acute syndrome   
      
   Some of the main clinical features are illustrated by a short   
   description of a patient. A previously healthy 20-year-old male   
   student had been behaving in an increasingly odd way. At times he   
   appeared angry and told his friends that he was being persecuted; at   
   other times he was seen to be laughing to himself for no apparent   
   reason. For several months he had seemed increasingly preoccupied   
   with his own thoughts. His academic work had deteriorated. When   
   interviewed, he was restless and awkward. He described hearing   
   voices commenting on his actions and abusing him. He said he   
   believed that the police had conspired with his university teachers   
   to harm his brain with poisonous gases and take away his thoughts.   
   He also believed that other people could read his thoughts.   
      
   This case history illustrates the following common features of acute   
   schizophrenia: prominent persecutory ideas with accompanying   
   hallucinations; gradual social withdrawal and impaired performance   
   at work; and the odd idea that other people can read one‘s thoughts.   
      
   In appearance and behaviour some patients with acute schizophrenia   
   are entirely normal. Others seem awkward in their social behaviour,   
   preoccupied and withdrawn, or otherwise odd. Some patients smile or   
   laugh without obvious reason. Some appear to be constantly   
   perplexed. Some are restless and noisy, or show sudden and   
   unexpected changes of behaviour. Others retire from company,   
   spending a long time in their rooms, perhaps lying immobile on the   
   bed apparently preoccupied in thought.   
      
   The speech often reflects an underlying thought disorder. In the   
   early stages, there is vagueness in the patient‘s talk that makes it   
   difficult to grasp his meaning. Some patients have difficulty in   
   dealing with abstract ideas (a phenomenon called concrete thinking).   
   Other patients become preoccupied with vague pseudoscientific or   
   mystical ideas.   
      
   When the disturbance is more severe two characteristic kinds of   
   abnormality may occur. Disorders of the stream of thought include   
   pressure of thought, poverty of thought, and thought blocking.   
   Thought withdrawal (the conviction that one‘s thoughts have been   
   taken away) is sometimes classified as a disorder of the stream of   
   thought, but it is more usefully considered as a form of delusion.   
      
   Loosening of association denotes a lack of connection between ideas.   
   This may be detected in illogical thinking (knight‘s move‘) or   
   talking past the point (Vorbeireden). In the severest form of   
   loosening the structure and coherence of thinking is lost, so that   
   utterances are jumbled (word salad or verbigeration). Some patients   
   use ordinary words in unusual ways (paraphrasias or metonyms), and a   
   few coin new words (neologisms).   
      
   Abnormalities of mood are common, and of three main kinds. First,   
   there may be sustained abnormalities of mood such as anxiety,   
   depression, irritability, or euphoria. Secondly, there may be   
   blunting of affect, sometimes known as flattening of affect.   
   Essentially this is sustained emotional indifference or diminution   
   of emotional response. Thirdly, there is incongruity of affect. Here   
   the emotion is not necessarily diminished, but it is not in keeping   
   with the mood that would ordinarily be expected. For example, a   
   patient may laugh when told about a bereavement. This third   
   abnormality is often said to be highly characteristic of   
   schizophrenia, but different interviewers often disagree about its   
   presence.   
      
   Auditory hallucinations are among the most frequent symptoms. They   
   may take the form of noises, music, single words, brief phrases, or   
   whole conversations. They may be unobtrusive or so severe as to   
   cause great distress. Some voices seem to give commands to the   
   patient. Some patients hear their own thoughts apparently spoken out   
   loud either as they think them (Gedankenlautwerden) or immediately   
   afterwards (echo de la pensee). Some voices seem to discuss the   
   patient in the third person. Others comment on his actions. As   
   described later, these last three symptoms have particular   
   diagnostic value.   
      
   Visual hallucinations are less frequent and usually occur with other   
   kinds of hallucination. Tactile, olfactory, gustatory, and somatic   
   hallucinations are reported by some patients; they are often   
   interpreted in a delusional way, for example hallucinatory   
   sensations in the lower abdomen are attributed to unwanted sexual   
   interference by a persecutor.   
      
   Delusions are characteristic. Primary delusions are infrequent, and   
   difficult to identify with certainty. Delusions may originate   
   against a background of so-called primary delusional mood -   
   Wahnstimmung. Persecutory delusions are common, but not specific to   
   schizophrenia. Less common but of greater diagnostic value are   
   delusions of reference and of control, and delusions about the   
   possession of thought. The latter are delusions that thoughts are   
   being inserted into or withdrawn from one‘s mind, or broadcast‘ to   
   other people.   
      
   In acute schizophrenia orientation is normal. Impairment of   
   attention and concentration is common, and may produce apparent   
   difficulties in remembering, though memory is not impaired.   
   So-called experiences result from illness, but usually ascribe them   
   to the malevolent actions of other people. This lack of insight is   
   often accompanied by unwillingness to accept treatment.   
      
   Schizophrenic patients do not necessarily experience all these   
   symptoms. The clinical picture is variable, as described later in   
   this chapter. The table below lists the most frequent symptoms found   
   in one large survey.   
      
   The most frequent symptoms of acute schizophrenia (World Health   
   Organization 1973)   
      
   Symptom                    Frequency (%)   
      
   Lack of insight                97   
   Auditory hallucinations        74   
   Ideas of reference             70   
   Suspiciousness                 66   
   Flatness of affect             66   
   Voices speaking to the patient 65   
   Delusional mood                64   
   Delusions of persecution       64   
   Thought alienation             52   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)