[An attribution psychological approach for explaining productive psychotic symptoms]

This study is an attempt to interpret productive psychotic symptoms within the framework of attribution psychology. The fundamental principles of this approach were supplied by Schachter in his publications on attribution research (basing on his theory of emotionality). First of all, an outline of Schachter's somatocognitive theory of emotion is given where emotions are interpreted as a result of (unspecific) neurovegetative excitation and certain characteristics of the external situation (the so-called cognitions). Experimental findings in connection with this approach are described. The concept of "incongruence attribution" was developed by us using a central element of Schachter's concept as well as currently accepted principles of attribution psychology. "Incongruence attribution" points to situations in which an individual is confronted by somatic alterations without the presence of attributable external cognitions. The present article refers to two psychiatric cases where a somatocognitive incongruence existed in the form of excessive physical changes. The psychotic pattern of symptoms occurring in both patients is interpreted by us as a result of incongruence attribution. Finally, the article deals with an extension of these deliberations in the sense of a large-scale application of concepts of attribution psychology to the range of psychoses. Productive symptoms as seen in endogenous and exogenous psychoses should generally be interpreted as examples of incongruence attribution.