n. a psychoanalytic-based theory which proposes four underlying symptoms necessary in diagnosing schizophrenia. As symptoms of the mind common to other disorders, delusions and hallucinations were classified as secondary or accessory symptoms. First discussed by Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler (1857-1939).
BLEULER’S THEORY: “Bleuler’s Theory on the fundamental symptoms of dementia was formulated in consultation with then-famous psychoanalytic expert, Sigmund Freud.”