[Verbal interaction of schizophrenic patients and their conversational partners]

Verbal interactive behavior of 10 male patients diagnosed as schizophrenic, but not acutely psychotic, and of their non-schizophrenic ('normal') and non-informed dialogue-partners are studied in dialogical conversations about political problems. A control group of ten dyads of 'normal' dialogue partners is used for comparisons. Quantitative text-properties (number of words, pauses) as well as a reconstructive hermeneutic analysis of the dialogues reveal a lack of dialogical balance, less task-oriented productivity, and markedly more strained conversation in dyads with a schizophrenic conversand as compared to those of the control group. The schizophrenic conversands we have studied manifest various interactive strategies of withdrawing from active participation in the conversational task, delegating it instead to their respective 'normal' partners who in turn attempt to stimulate more active participation of them. Furthermore, occasional strange utterances occur in nearly all dyads with a schizophrenic and lead to disturbances in the flow of the conversation. We interpret these findings as manifestations of object-relations disturbances and of corresponding deviant modes of regulating personal distance in schizophrenics.