[Psychosis, language and literature]

There have always been debates about possible correlations between creative genius and mental illness, not only among psychiatrists but also among scientists of art and literature. Especially modern literary texts may show formal similarities to psychotic speech, which leads to the question, whether not only artists, but also people in psychotic states are able to create literature. This article points out the loosened semantic stability in psychotic speech, which equals a loss of common ground in the use of signs and symbols. In terms of Gadamer's hermeneutics, texts produced by psychotic people cannot be understood, they are mere form. Even in hermetic literary texts, the semantic code can be offended, but in deliberate artistic intention, which finds its communicative purpose in breaking the symbolic order.