The concept of 'sluggish schizophrenia' is virtually limited to the USSR and some other East European countries, and may contribute to the mis-diagnosis of democrats as psychiatric patients. Recently, a number of articles have appeared in the Soviet literature relating the diagnosis of 'sluggish schizophrenia' or 'slowly progressive schizophrenia' to affective disorders, especially hypomania. Soviet publications on this theme from 1980 to 1984 are discussed, together with their relationship to questions on the abuse of psychiatry.