Could Socrates be diagnosed within the schizophrenia spectrum? Could schizophrenia patients be considered in the light of Socratic insights?

[I]n fact the best things we have come from madness …”(Plato, Phaedrus 244a) Out of the biographic data on Socrates we find descriptions of some peculiar experiences and behaviours, which could be interpreted as a part of what is in our era diagnosed within the schizophrenia spectrum. The focus of this article is not whether we misinterpret some diagnostic criteria of schizophrenia if we diagnose Socrates by them, but whether we misinterpret some Socratic qualities in our fellow human beings, who happen to be diagnosed as such. Do we not appreciate one and the same thing once as wisdom (in Socrates) and in the next moment treat the same quality as “pseudo-philosophy” in our patients? Perhaps we need to turn back to the admonisher of “the unexamined life” (Socrates) and to start appreciating – and indeed learning from – examinations of our schizophrenia patients on the same wavelength. We give here first a concise depiction of Socrates’ peculiarities with as much context as possible, and then we employ a hermeneutic-phenomenological investigation to shed some light on the aforementioned ideas. These ideas can be seen as a small contribution to a much-needed de-stigmatization of schizophrenia patients and indeed a positive appreciation of their strengths, which are both key mediators in their treatment and recovery.