A Study of Critical Variables in the Anxiety of Schizophrenics by means of a Structured Clinical Interview and a Percept-genetic Experiment

Abstract: Presented to 42 schizophrenic patients and 19 normals, by means of a percept-genetic technique, two motifs of mother and infant in close interaction (feeding and nursing) . The motifs were tagged, by subliminal presentation, with aggressive resp. "healing" sentences, in a balanced design. No effects of this tagging were discernible. A cluster-analysis (Ward s method) of the material yielded 4 fairly well defined clusters characterised by 1)lack of gestalts 2)"groping" for gestalts 3)finding human gestalts 4)securing human gestalts. This was especially true of the Feeding-scene, being somewhat diffuse as regards figure/ground Prägnanz. The Nursing-scene clusters were characterised by 1) groping for gestalts 2) finding human gestalts 3) securing human gestalts 4) elaborating human gestalts. It was hypothesised that the (submanifest) anxiety produced by the motifs overshadowed and rendered too weak the effects of the verbal stimulation. A structured clinical interview, designed by the author, was administered to the sample and the results thorougly analysed ( factor-analyses, item intercorrelations). This yielded in essence three factors: Anxiety-anger, Depression-distress and Relations to love-objects. These factors and many items had the discriminatory power to differ the two test groups fairly well. Finally interview-measures were related to percept-genetic measures by one way ANOVA yielding sometimes very clearcut relations. On the basis of the results the author suggests that schizophrenia should be considered a very heterogenous ailment, the cause of symptoms ranging from deficits to conflicts, the deficits ranging from organic to functional. Interesting differences were found between schizophrenic men and women, the women more "alert". A psychodynamic view of psychic development is recommended as the best possible frame of reference, well suited to the understanding of the results. An exstensive discussion of the dynamics of schizophrenia is included; lack of capacity for dissociation, primitive regression (non-linear as opposed to normal "linear"), disintegration and a conspicuous lack of gestalting capacity is advocated.