The construct of schizophrenia, as depicted by the DSMIV and the proposed DSM-5 diagnostic criteria, lacks a distinctive and typical clinical core. A variety of symptoms and signs are listed, but what links these disparate clinical aspects together remains unclear. We wondered elsewhere whether there is actually a Gestalt in the schizophrenic syndrome, that the operational approach fails to grasp, or whether the Gestalt presupposed by the psychiatric tradition was simply an illusion, that the operational approach unveils.