Reactive schizophrenia and perceptual sensitization

The perceptual behavior of process and reactive schizophrenics under neutral and stress conditions suggests an hypothesis that the former employ a repressive ego defensive mode in these conditions while reactives employ a sensitization mode. The Repression-Sensitization scale of the MMPI was administered to a sample of hospitalized process and reactive schizophrenics to test the hypothesis. Scores of the process group did not indicate modal repression. Reactives' scores were, however, well toward the sensitization pole and significantly higher than those of the process group. Results support the concept of a sensitization defensive mode as a characteristic dimension in the etiology of reactive schizophrenia.