"The more modern thinking is that schizophrenia doesn't exist[1]."
One of the main points of the article you link to is that schizophrenia does exist, with the caveat that it exists not as a single disease but as a disease spectrum:
"when Dr. van Os writes that "'schizophrenia' does not exist," taking care to place quotation marks around "schizophrenia," what he's mainly saying is that the term "schizophrenia" doesn't represent a single disease entity and should therefore be replaced with "something like ‘psychosis spectrum syndrome.'"
and
"saying that "schizophrenia" represents a variety of distinct disorders with different causes doesn't mean that it doesn't exist at all"
It concludes with:
"In the end then, the argument that "schizophrenia" doesn’t exist is far from compelling. Schizophrenia is a word we use in medicine to describe a familiar set of
co-occurring psychotic symptoms, with potentially different causes, just like "anemia," or "hypertension," or "headache." In some cases, it can be useful to think of it as
a categorical disorder, distinct from other forms of psychosis. In others, it can be best thought of as a spectrum condition, lumping it together with other psychotic
disorders. A more enlightened view of schizophrenia acknowledges that both can be true."
Sorry, I should have been more clear. What I was trying to point out was that people seem to think of it as a disease like cancer and it's problematic to distill it to such a fine point. The fear that somehow you can open a door to losing your faculties much like how you can open a door to cancer via smoking is a mix of drug war propaganda and the overwhelming societal stigma against mental illness.
I very much agree with the conclusion clinically. However I've seen how the imprecise nature and the scarlet letter stigma of the disorder can feed into itself. Especially when coupled with (a lot of times secret) drug usage.
There are issues with co-morbid problems like autism spectrum+PTSD+psychiatric medications with unreported usage of substances that very much exhibit like psychotic spectrum disorders and because of a failure to identify the difference, people get the wrong care and sometimes it kills them. I tragically saw this play out with a friend of mine and in hindsight it was totally preventable.
I am definitely not denying that people have mental illnesses that need to be treated. Just saying that crazy isn't what most people think it is and crazification when it comes to psychedelics is something that fails to appropriately address a lot of factors. To think of psychosis in terms of absolute doesn't help people that struggle lead better lives and doesn't really cover the bases for self discovery and personal awareness either. In the end, not being critical of this kind of talk related to psychedelics makes it much harder for us to explore their massive therapeutic potential.
One of the main points of the article you link to is that schizophrenia does exist, with the caveat that it exists not as a single disease but as a disease spectrum:
"when Dr. van Os writes that "'schizophrenia' does not exist," taking care to place quotation marks around "schizophrenia," what he's mainly saying is that the term "schizophrenia" doesn't represent a single disease entity and should therefore be replaced with "something like ‘psychosis spectrum syndrome.'"
and
"saying that "schizophrenia" represents a variety of distinct disorders with different causes doesn't mean that it doesn't exist at all"
It concludes with:
"In the end then, the argument that "schizophrenia" doesn’t exist is far from compelling. Schizophrenia is a word we use in medicine to describe a familiar set of co-occurring psychotic symptoms, with potentially different causes, just like "anemia," or "hypertension," or "headache." In some cases, it can be useful to think of it as a categorical disorder, distinct from other forms of psychosis. In others, it can be best thought of as a spectrum condition, lumping it together with other psychotic disorders. A more enlightened view of schizophrenia acknowledges that both can be true."