11 AUGUST 1950, Page 18

Schizophrenia

SIR,—R. D. (barques, in his remarks on Janko Lavrin's "approach" to Ibsen, notes that this author labels Ibsen a schizophrenic " like Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard and Strindberg." As a psychiatrist I protest against the indiscriminate use of this term which is now so prevalent. Schizophrenia is a very grave psychotic disorder, generally found in young people. It would be more correct to write of the schizoid type of personality as opposed to the opposite cycloid dharacteristics. Some would label all personality character traits in this