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The main goal of the psychological branch in the diagnosis and treatment of schizophrenia is to treat the patient and to reintroduce him into society without the use of drugs or other physical interventions. This comes from decades, and even centuries, of experience of observation and treatment of schizophrenics. Over this time, there have been many theories about the cause of schizophrenia and the most safe and effective treatment. When the condition was first diagnosed, it was done so by Kraeplin, and instead of classifying it under the name Schizophrenia, he called it Dementia Praecox, meaning an early stage of Dementia. This has been disproven over the years, though, and it was finally classified as it's own condition in the
In the early days of battling the condition, there wasn't really an established psychological basis to this condition.

At that time, in the 19th century, many of those who treated schizophrenia experimented with primitive forms of ECT, lobotomies, and harsh punishments for the patient's behavior. There was a minority who thought that the disease, along with dementia, was probably psychologically derived, rather than biologically, but were unsuccessful in yielding results with their methods. It wasn't until the early to mid 20th century, when the field of Psychology was very large and encompassing, when there were serious thoughts of a psychological basis to this condition. As more and more evidence was collected, it was shown that at times of stress the condition appears, and that otherwise it went primarily undetected. From the vast field of psychology rose the application of the psychoanalytic technique, love-centered therapy, and various other forms of treatment. Of all of the forms of psychological basis, many of them obscure, the psychoanalytic technique seemed to be most reasonable, and yielded better results than many of the other techniques.

The reasons behind the psychological basis is really from the 1940s and 50s, when psychologically based theories seemed to solve many problems ranging from mild personality disorders to the severely disturbed. Also, with behaviorism on the rise, there was a great behaviorist influence in television commercials, school curriculi, and it made people thinking about the government and it's social settings that it was pressing upon the people, primarily in B.F. Skinner's "Walden II." If psychologically could be broad and solve so many problems, why not schizophrenia? And so a great divide occurred between the scientists and psychologists, hence leaving us with the Psychological, Biological, and Eclectic perspectives in dealing with this condition.

	Etiology Psychological causes	Treatments Psychological treatments