The evolution of human thought runs from the private conception; to the articulated, great idea; to the conversion of others; to the group enunciation of an ideology; to the group's organization and the institutionalization of what are then new dogmas. Immediately, therefore, difference of opinion involves difference of organization in the sense of the means to institutionalize new ideas. Rejection of new ideas is also a rejection of the body of persons adhering to them and is hence an organic schism in the institution. Schisms affect all systematic or prescriptive religions; philosophies of behaviour, individual and societal; and fundamental sciences such as biology and physics. While schisms are pronounced by the orthodox, the tendency that leads to them may lie, on occasion, in compulsive behaviour induced by complexes and other personality disturbances. This frequently manifests in the excessive ego drives that characterize many schismatics.
Within international organizations there is always tendency towards schism, which sometimes erupts as disruptive influences, and which sometimes proves to be a salutary development. In a religious context, schism differs from heresy in that it maintains the same rituals but, by disobedience, divides the community.