The effects of stimulating symbiotic fantasies on manifest pathology in schizophrenics: a revised formulation

This study was designed as a further investigation of the ameliorative effects of stimulating a symbiotic fantasy in schizophrenics. Fifty-four adult male schizophrenic subjects were each seen individually for three experimental sessions. In each session there was exposure to a neutral subliminal stimulus followed by a baseline assessment of thought disorder and behavioral pathology. This was followed by exposure to one of three critical stimuli: a) a neutral control stimulus; b) the stimulus "mommy and I are one," designed to activate a fantasy of symbiotic gratification, and found in past studies to lead to pathology reduction; and c) "mommy and I are two," designed as a test of the specificity of oneness fantasy in producing symptomatic improvement. Each subject was exposed to the three critical simuli by counterbalanced order. Assessments of pathology were repeated after exposure to the experimental stimuli and comparisons were made with baseline measures. Results were: a) the subliminal symbiotic stimulus produced improvement on one of the measures of pathology, replicating findings from previous studies; and b) unexpectedly, the "mommy and I are two" stimulus led to pathology reduction on both dependent measures and proved significantly more ameliorative than the oneness stimulus. Associations obtained from subjects on a post hoc basis, the relationship between responses of individual subjects to the two stimuli, and the way in which order of presentation of the critical stimuli affected results supported the view that the twoness message also gratified symbiotic wishes while simultaneously providing reassurance against dangers associated with boundary loss. Results were discussed with an eye toward sharpening and refining the formulation advanced in the past to account for the ameliorative effects of the "oneness" stimulus.