Could repressive coping be a mediating factor in the symptom profile of individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia?

Despite a relatively high prevalence, and the enduring patronage of the disorder by psychiatry and the pharmaceutical industry, innovative conceptualization of schizophrenia in a client-empowering and quality of life-enhancing way appears to represent a vacuum within the clinical agenda, certainly taking second place to 'patient management'. However, against this bland background of medicalization of what is clearly a poorly understood and complex multifactorial syndrome, innovative treatment approaches aimed at symptom control, in particular, the stress vulnerability model (SVM), have been developed. However, the SVM is an incomplete model of patient experience and says little of aetiological note. One area of psychological function that may give further insight into the symptom experience associated with schizophrenia within the context of stress vulnerability concerns the mechanisms of repression. Ironically, the notion of repression will for many represent the epitome of nonevidence-based psychiatric theory and related psychodynamic therapy practice. However, more contemporary work within the psychological literature has aimed to make the concept both measurable and observable. No longer occluded by the context of psychoanalysis, cognitive science accounts of repression may be of value in facilitating understanding of the variability and predictability of symptoms of schizophrenia and may provide a dimension of therapeutic engagement allied to the SVM.