Hamlet: Schizophreniform with violent tendencies and depression
Hamlet displays several symptoms of the related disorders of schizophrenia. From the category A of symptoms of which there must be two or more present he displays delusions, hallucinations, certain negative symptoms, and disorganized speech. He also shows poor social interactions with his family and friends around him. The duration of these symptoms, however, does seem to be limited. For once he returns from England he seems to have regained much of his mental prowess from before his father’s death.
The delusion of Hamlet manifests itself in the idea that he believes himself to be the only one who can clearly see what is going on with his uncle and his mother. He keeps much of his thoughts about what is going on to himself like the others are so much more susceptible to their deceit then he is. He defiantly has moments of this grandiose feeling when talking Polonius, whom he believes to be an old fool. Another form of delusion that Hamlet displays is the fact that he sees his uncle as his ‘enemy’ whom is both trying to trick him in to trusting and accepting him as king and tormenting him, both in marrying his mother and making it out to seem like Hamlet’s crazy.
The hallucinations of Hamlet are fairly obvious. He claims to see the ghost of his father, which both appears and speaks to him. Notice that the ghost only talks to Hamlet alone and no one else can ever hear him, others have perceived him but none has spoken to him. This would fall right along with what we know about hallucinations and schizophrenics today. Illusion can occur where there are preexisting stimuli; mass hallucinations based of a stimulus are not unheard of or exceedingly rare. However, auditory hallucinations are far more common in those with schizophrenia with 75% reporting this type of hallucination. (DSM IV). He also only sees the ghost during the night which news studies suggest there might be a connection with. (Koffel, Erin, and David Watson). It is also common for the hallucination to have a running commentary on the individual’s behaviors and actions. This is very present with the ghost since he keeps telling Hamlet to “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.” (Shakespeare).
His disorganized speech is evident in the nonsensical sentences he seems to spout out that the Hamlet perfectly understands but seems to leave everybody else confused. We see this with Ophelia which she goes to talk about the favors he’s giving her and he claims to have no notion of what she is talking about and calls her a liar. Another time is with Polonius when he asks him whom he is and Hamlet responds “Excellent, excellent well. You’re a fishmonger.”(Shakespeare). In fact for much of his conversations with Polonius (and many times with Ophelia) he seems to ramble quite a bit to himself without really addressing the others that are seemingly apart of the conversation.
As for his social interactions they are most obviously flawed. He mistreats Ophelia accusing her of horrible things and intentions, he believes that his mother (and all women) are whorish and has betrayed him, and he sends his friends to their death. To say that he shows social dysfunction would be an understatement.
However, we cannot give him the straight diagnosis of schizophrenia for a couple of reasons. The first being that his episodes were preceded by a death of a family member, in this case it seems to have triggered the displays of schizophrenia, since the rest of the cast laminates about how much he as has changed we can gather that he wasn’t like this before his father’s death. Secondly, everything involving his psychosis seems to happen a short period of time we cannot say that it is just schizophrenia. For the same reasons we cannot diagnose it as either Schizotypy or Schizotypal personality disorders since it is not lifelong. It would be unlikely to be Schizoaffective disorder because there are no true symptoms that would be congruent with Major Mood Disorder. The closest one we have then is Schizophreniform since it is typically a precursors and short lasting. The final diagnosis would be Schizophreniform accompanied by violent tendencies and depression.
The delusion of Hamlet manifests itself in the idea that he believes himself to be the only one who can clearly see what is going on with his uncle and his mother. He keeps much of his thoughts about what is going on to himself like the others are so much more susceptible to their deceit then he is. He defiantly has moments of this grandiose feeling when talking Polonius, whom he believes to be an old fool. Another form of delusion that Hamlet displays is the fact that he sees his uncle as his ‘enemy’ whom is both trying to trick him in to trusting and accepting him as king and tormenting him, both in marrying his mother and making it out to seem like Hamlet’s crazy.
The hallucinations of Hamlet are fairly obvious. He claims to see the ghost of his father, which both appears and speaks to him. Notice that the ghost only talks to Hamlet alone and no one else can ever hear him, others have perceived him but none has spoken to him. This would fall right along with what we know about hallucinations and schizophrenics today. Illusion can occur where there are preexisting stimuli; mass hallucinations based of a stimulus are not unheard of or exceedingly rare. However, auditory hallucinations are far more common in those with schizophrenia with 75% reporting this type of hallucination. (DSM IV). He also only sees the ghost during the night which news studies suggest there might be a connection with. (Koffel, Erin, and David Watson). It is also common for the hallucination to have a running commentary on the individual’s behaviors and actions. This is very present with the ghost since he keeps telling Hamlet to “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.” (Shakespeare).
His disorganized speech is evident in the nonsensical sentences he seems to spout out that the Hamlet perfectly understands but seems to leave everybody else confused. We see this with Ophelia which she goes to talk about the favors he’s giving her and he claims to have no notion of what she is talking about and calls her a liar. Another time is with Polonius when he asks him whom he is and Hamlet responds “Excellent, excellent well. You’re a fishmonger.”(Shakespeare). In fact for much of his conversations with Polonius (and many times with Ophelia) he seems to ramble quite a bit to himself without really addressing the others that are seemingly apart of the conversation.
As for his social interactions they are most obviously flawed. He mistreats Ophelia accusing her of horrible things and intentions, he believes that his mother (and all women) are whorish and has betrayed him, and he sends his friends to their death. To say that he shows social dysfunction would be an understatement.
However, we cannot give him the straight diagnosis of schizophrenia for a couple of reasons. The first being that his episodes were preceded by a death of a family member, in this case it seems to have triggered the displays of schizophrenia, since the rest of the cast laminates about how much he as has changed we can gather that he wasn’t like this before his father’s death. Secondly, everything involving his psychosis seems to happen a short period of time we cannot say that it is just schizophrenia. For the same reasons we cannot diagnose it as either Schizotypy or Schizotypal personality disorders since it is not lifelong. It would be unlikely to be Schizoaffective disorder because there are no true symptoms that would be congruent with Major Mood Disorder. The closest one we have then is Schizophreniform since it is typically a precursors and short lasting. The final diagnosis would be Schizophreniform accompanied by violent tendencies and depression.