Rethink the use of ‘schizophrenia’

UPON reading Christopher Hawthorne’s “Shanghai: Sky’s the Limit” [Feb. 27], I was very surprised to see he used the word “schizophrenic” to describe the attempts to balance Chinese urbanism and outside influences. Schizophrenia is a mental illness affecting thousands of people. It is not a word to be used in describing the above or any other such description. It has nothing to do with two personalities; it has to do with illusions, hallucinations, noncognitive mental conditions.

Dorothy Meyer

Glendale

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