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During their most severe periods, people with schizophrenia live in a private inner world, preoccupied with the strange ideas and images that haunt them. The word itself means “split” (schizo) “mind” (phrenia). In this disorder, however, the mind is not split into multiple personalities. Rather, the mind has suffered a split from reality that shows itself in disturbed perceptions, disorganized thinking and speech, and diminished, inappropriate emotions. Schizophrenia is the chief example of a psychosis, a broad term for a break or split from reality.