Language in Schizophrenia: Pathologies

In this work, we will try to analyze the language used by schizophrenics and its impact on communicating between them and between them and society. In his day-to-day work with people who suffer from schizophrenia, one of the problems that he notices is the difficulty in maintaining a conversation that is no longer coherent with them, but intelligible. In most cases, it is very difficult for us to communicate with them, which leads to the following hypotheses: It is difficult for us to communicate. It is difficult for them to express themselves correctly. We do not get along linguistically, therapists and patients; It is what on the street we would say that “we are not on the same wavelength.” First we will analyze the distortions that occur at the language level in this population and then we will propose a program that encourages, encourages and corrects “schizophrenic speech.”

In this PsychologyOnline article, we will talk about Language in schizophrenia: Pathologies

Analysis of schizophrenic language:

When we look at the speech of schizophrenics, we denote some deficiencies and some excesses, but above all what we see is the deterioration of the speech and the difficulty they have in communicating in a coherent way for the interlocutor and for him to understand them, It can therefore speak of a disintegrated language, with serious semantic alterations above all, but with poor syntax.

If we analyze non-verbal components that intervene in interpersonal communication in schizophrenics we have to:

• The facial expression is completely expressionless, with very frequent negative expressions and not communicating anything on other occasions.
• The gazes are often lost in infinity, without any visual contact with the interlocutor in front of them, causing a negative impression.
• The smile is always inadequate, with frequent unmotivated laughter, the cause of the delirium that is speaking to them at the same time as the interlocutor.
• The posture stands out for its motor rigidity, with positions that we can hardly consider comfortable, giving an impression of total rejection of the speaker.
• orientation does not exist, they do not direct their body and their gaze to the interlocutor
• Distance and physical contact have two extremes: the invasive, occupying the so-called vital space of the interlocutor, in an extremely close and intimate distance, very unpleasant, and the distance, with continuous allusions to the recipient at a long distance, with a total distance.
• The gestures are non-existent, the hands remain motionless, a reflection of their apathy and often more in response to their internal “voices” than as reinforcement of what they want to communicate to us.
• The personal appearance is very unpleasant, without any attractiveness and is deficient with a certain degree of unkemptness and lack of basic self-care.
• The opportunity to reinforce others is not given at any time, with zero gratifications towards the partner and sometimes when some are made, they are out of place.

When we look at what would make up the paralinguistic components:

• The volume of the voice is minimal, they can hardly be heard, they do not use a volume appropriate for the interlocutor, the volume decreasing the greater the length of the message.
• The intonation is flat, monotonous and boring, there is no accompaniment to the message emitted.
• the timbre is either very high pitched or very low pitched.
• fluency is not present, there is no continuity in the speech, there are many disturbances or embarrassing pauses, there is no accompaniment, once the sentence is finished, the topic and the conversation conclude, having to use interrogative phrases to continue or comment on another topic, which concludes when he answers, often with monosyllables.
• speed has two possibilities, depending on the degree of cognitive impairment of the patient and the typology of their disease, on the one hand we would have people with very slow speech, who speak extremely slowly, and on the other hand, people with logorrhea, who speak extremely quickly and cannot be understands nothing.
• The clarity is confusing, having to ask for continuous clarifications about the neologisms used and the meaning they want to give to the phrase.
• The speaking time is short, with long periods of silence, concluding with the answer to what is asked.

When we enter the verbal components Strictly speaking we see that:

• The content is very uninteresting, boring and very little varied, often being delirious, which makes it difficult for the interlocutor to understand.
• The notes of humor throughout the conversation are scarce, with a very serious content in his speech.
• Personal attention is something that does not exist for them, they are never interested in the other person, and it is also something that is difficult for them to maintain, with continuous requirements for it.
• The questions when they exist are short, general when they want to express something particular and very specific when they actually want to ask a general question. At the other pole we have people who never ask questions or on very rare occasions.
• The answers to questions are monosyllabic and not very appropriate, without elaborating on the answer, having to ask several questions to reach an answer that in another type of population would suffice with a single question.

One of the characteristics of schizophrenic patients and their illness is social isolation, which, together with apathy and lack of attention, is what Andreasen calls negative symptoms of the illness.

Furthermore, psychotics use correct syntax, but their semantics are sometimes illogical. In fact, although their lexical, morphological, phonological, syntactic and other related abilities do not seem to be impaired, this is not the case in the field of semantics.

As Belinchon (1988) points out, there are three types of clinical observations:

1. That the speech of schizophrenics is not very fluent and occasionally shows prosodic alterations that affect intonation and speed.
2. That schizophrenic language is perseverative
3. That schizophrenic language is unintelligible, incoherent and/or difficult to understand by the interlocutor.

Needless to say, this set of characteristics are neither exclusive to schizophrenia, nor are they present in all cases, nor do they all coincide.

Schizophrenics They can use language appropriately, but they cannot communicate well because they do not take into account their interlocutors and their information needs. The performance of the schizophrenic when the number of verbal elements is greater than three or four worsens drastically. There is an excess of monologues in this type of patient, this would lead us to point out that the speech is poor, that it takes a great effort on the part of the interlocutor-recipient to achieve links between the sentences that give consistency to the conversation, that the number of spontaneous comments is minimal, which forces the recipient to force the conversation at all times to give it a continuity that is not always achieved, not to mention how complicated it is for this population to change the topic in the middle of the speech, representing a great deal. difficulty the traditional methods used for this purpose of changing the topic: in threads and jumps.

When a schizophrenic acts as a sender, he or she encounters great difficulties when providing information that allows him or her to identify a single referent.

The descriptions offered are inadequate for the needs of the listener with respect to the task to be developed, and the design based on the receiver is defective.

If we consult some authors such as Andreasen and Chaika, we see their lists of distortions in the language of schizophrenics, which agree with those detected in practice and in the reviews carried out for this work.

Distortions in schizophrenic language:

(Andreasen, 1979)

• Poverty of speech
• Poverty of speech content
• Rushed speech, logorrhea
• Divergent speech
• tangential speech
• Derailment
• Incoherence
• word salad
• Ilogisms Assonance and alteration
• Neologisms
• “Approximation of words”
• long-winded language
• Circumstantial speech
• Loss of objective, forgetfulness of the topic
• Perseveration
• Echolalia
• Blocking
• emphatic speech
• Self-referential discourse
• phonetic paraphrase
• Semantic paraphrase

List of linguistic features that define, according to Chaika (1982), the

• Neologisms that are difficult to interpret
• I mumble
• Preference for using the dominant meaning of words
• Use of associative chains not subordinated to a topic (glossomania)
• Rhymes and alliterations not related to the topic of the speech
• Emission of words and/or phrases that are associated with others previously said, but that are not relevant to the speech
• Inappropriate perseverative repetition of words and/or morphemes
• “word salads “and alterations in syntax, which affect the organization of sentences and/or speeches
• Apparent inability to notice linguistic errors made

This article is merely informative, at PsychologyFor we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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