The psychotic disorders are mental illnesses in which the person is grossly out of touch with reality. The schizophrenias are a category of disorders in which the person has broadly lost contact with reality and shows a number of different kinds of psychotic symptoms. The most symptoms have lasted for at least one month although the person has shown some psychotic tendencies for at least six months before their condition is considered schizophrenia. Onset does not usually occur until early to middle adulthood.
Schizophrenia has nothing to do with multiple personality.
They are not the same thing at all. The public at large has had the terms confused for decades because of some movies that mixed the words up. Usually occurs earlier in life than other schizophrenias. If the individual loses touch with reality during adolescence, while the personality is still developing, he or she will end up having fewer stable traits than other individual. The disorganized schizophrenic is therefore a very chaotic, unpredictable person whose mood and other behavior change rapidly and inappropriately.