Psychiatrists' versus patients' concepts of unpleasant emotions

A semantic differential technique was used to elicit concepts of anxiety, depression and irritability from twenty patients suffering from neurosis and ten experienced psychiatrists. It was found that psychiatrists hold concepts of these unpleasant affects that are much more differentiated than those held by patients. In particular, the psychiatrists' concepts of anxiety and depression showed a correlation of zero, whereas the patients' concepts of these affects overlapped to a considerable degree. Patients were unable to discriminate between anxiety and depression on the basis of 11 somatic symptoms, but were able to use these symptoms to distinguish anxiety and depression from irritability. The psychiatrists were in close accord with the patients over the somatic symptoms that distinguished anxiety from irritability.