Arieti begins his book stating that it is difficult to define schizophrenia. He asks if schizophrenia is an illness and answers in the negative, since the disorder is not understood in classic Virchowian criterion of cellular pathology.
Arieti initiates his work by acknowledging the difficulty in defining schizophrenia. He then queries if schizophrenia is an illness, finding it does not fit into Virchowian's criterion of cellular pathology.