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Primary process content in paranoid schizophrenic speech
1Veterans Administration Medical Center, White River Junction, VT 05001.
The Journal of Genetic Psychology
|December 1, 1988
Abstract:
Free speech samples given by paranoid schizophrenics, nonschizophrenic paranoids, and nonpsychotic psychiatric patients were submitted to computerized content analysis. Speech samples were searched for words belonging to the Regressive Imagery Dictionary (Martindale, 1975), which yields a well-validated measure of primary process content. Three word-concreteness dictionaries were also employed. Compared to the other groups, paranoid schizophrenics produced speech higher in primary process content as well as in transitive verb concreteness. Results are consistent with psychoanalytic theory.