This study investigated lay subjects' theories of schizophrenia. A questionnaire examining the five identified main academic theories of schizophrenia (medical, moral–behavioural, social, psychoanalytic, and conspiratorial) along various dimensions (aetiology, behaviour, treatment, function of the hospital, and the rights and duties of both patients and society) was constructed for use in the study. The results from 106 lay respondents showed that no single model was favoured exclusively but seemed to point to a synthesis of several academic theories. The lay subjects stressed the importance of patient environment in the aetiology of schizophrenia rather than a physiological malfunction, but tended to stress the personal rights of the schizophrenic. The differences between lay and the currently dominant psychiatric models are discussed in terms of the function these models serve for each group.