“The incredible pessimism associated with schizophrenia has frustrated psychiatrists for a long time. —Patrick D. McGorry, psychiatry professor, Wall Street Journal, August 25, 1999

Matthew was preparing to take the entrance exam to law school in 1995 when he started seeing double. Subsequent medical exams revealed that he had a lesion on his brain. During the next eighteen months, Matthew began to suffer from stress, rages, and sleeplessness. He also found it difficult to concentrate and became withdrawn from his family and friends. Matthew’s symptoms and his age at their onset are characteristic of schizophrenia and he was diagnosed with the disease.

Contrary to popular belief, people with schizophrenia do not have multiple personalities. Instead, they experience a change in their perception of reality. Hallucinations (in which the person hears, sees, smells, or feels something that is not actually present) and delusions (in which a person&rsquo...