Schizophrenia: A Scientific Delusion?, first published in 1990, made a very significant contribution to the debates on the concepts of schizophrenia and mental illness. These concepts remain both influential and controversial and this new updated second edition provides an incisive critical analysis of the debates over the last decade. As well as providing updated versions of the historical and scientific arguments against the concept of schizophrenia which formed the basis of the first edition, Boyle covers significant new material relevant to today's debates, including: The development of DSM-IV's version of 'schizophrenia' Analysis of social, psychological and linguistic processes which construct 'schizophrenia' as a reasonable version of reality A detailed critical evaluation of recent alternatives to the concept of schizophrenia Schizophrenia: A Scientific Delusion? demonstrates that the need for analysis and debate on these issues is as great as ever and that we need to question how we think about and manage what we call "madness".