Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 January 2018
A previous paper (Morgan, 1967) demonstrated the extent to which long-stay psychiatric patients are handicapped by ignorance of the names of people whom they see daily. The mean performance of a sample of patients was less than half as good as that of a control group of non-patients. It was postulated that knowledge of another person's name is a useful tool in social intercourse, and that ignorance of a name represents a handicap to communication. It was further suggested that some cause and effect relationship exists between the social withdrawal of long-stay schizophrenic patients and their ignorance of names. The data presented in the previous paper did not serve to show whether this ignorance is treatable at all or whether current methods of treatment are in fact helping to treat it. The present paper aims to present some further evidence on these points, derived from a deliberate attempt to teach patients the names of other people.
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