Brief Answer:
imagery and schizophrenia are very different.

Detailed Answer:
Hello
Welcome to HCM.

I am doing good.
How are you doing?

First, I would like to tell you that imagery is a normal mental process whereas schizophrenia is a thought disorder.

Mental imagery can be defined as pictures in the mind or a visual representation in the absence of environmental input.
It occurs in the absence of stimulus and no sensory receptors are needed.
It is like dreams or more like daydreaming.

It is different from a normal perception in which there is a stimulus and sensory receptors are required to feel it.

Schizophrenia is a thought disorder in which there are hallucinations and delusions. The thoughts may be real or imaginary. The person may or may not experienced those thoughts in reality.
But there are many behavioral changes in schizophrenia.
The thoughts or imaginations are concrete.

Whereas in imagery, the mental images are not that concrete. It may or may not be reproduced at will.

Hope this answers your query satisfactorily.

Feel free to discuss further.

Take care.
Thanks.

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Brief Answer:
disorganisation of thoughts

Detailed Answer:
Hello again.
Sorry for the late response.

By thought disorder I mean that in schizophrenia, the thoughts are disorganised. The person's ability to synchronize his thoughts is lost. There are bizzare thoughts like 'someone is controlling my mind' or some is following me'. As a result, his judgement is impaired. The person feels that whatever he is thinking and saying is true, when in reality, its false.

Imagery is not real. It is just the visual representation of imagination. Like someone feels with his eyes closed that he is walking on the clouds. But still he knows that its his imagination. Its like daydreaming.

Thoughts are group of ideas in the mind. The person thinks and acts over it.

Hallucinations are false perception without stimuli. Like, a person says that he is hearing some voice when in reality there is no one around to speak.

Delusions are fixed, false, firm, unshakeable belief which is held by a person despite the evidence to contrary.

Hope this answers your queries satisfactorily.

Thanks.

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Brief Answer:
please find the examples below.

Detailed Answer:
Hello. Hope you are doing good.

I will try to explain my point to you with examples:

If you are walking down the street and a man on the opposite sidewalk coughs, you don’t think anything of it and may not even consciously hear the cough. The person with schizophrenia, however, not only hears the cough but may immediately decide it must be a signal to activate some kind of radiowaves coming from the sky to kill him.

I will give you another example about one of my case of schizophrenia:

One patient of mine was convinced that a camera had been sewn into his skull when he had had a minor scalp wound sutured and had tried to bring legal suit against the police innumerable times. He was of the belief that police personnel were following his acts through that camera. He went to dozens of major medical centers, seeking a surgeon who would remove it, even when lots of evidences were given to him everywhere that there is no such camera in his skull.

I hope these examples help you to understand the point.

Take care.
Thanks

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