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Language in Schizophrenia

The Structure of Monologues and Conversations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

D. R. Rutter
D. R. Rutter*
Affiliation:
Social Psychology Research Unit, Beverley Farm, The University, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7LZ
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Summary

Experimental research into language in schizophrenia has been guided traditionally by two main assumptions: that language disturbance is widespread among schizophrenic patients and easy to detect and measure, and that schizophrenia is fundamentally a cognitive disorder in which language disturbance is part of an inability or failure to regulate one's thoughts. However, recent findings have challenged both assumptions. Two experiments are reported here, the first based on monologues, the second on conversations, which were subjected to reconstruction and discourse analyses. Schizophrenic material is found to be harder to follow than normal, and is characterised by poor reference networks and inappropriate use of questions. While some of the results are specific to the schizophrenic group, others are found also in affective patients, but none is the product of formal thought disorder. The central problem lies less in cognition than in the social process of taking the role of the other.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 146 , Issue 4 , April 1985 , pp. 399 - 404
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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