Coherence in Psychotic Discourse

by Branca Telles Ribeiro, Edward Finegan

Overview

This fascinating study explores the ways of establishing coherence in the discourse of a psychotic patient. Analyzing the talk between a doctor and a patient in an acute crisis, and then later, when the patient is deemed recovered, Branca Telles Ribeiro looks at how the participants jointly establish referential meaning, and how topic coherence is achieved or breaks down. She then considers how the participants convey superordinate messages and metamessages, and how the patient signals and assesses the frame of talk.

Ribiero suggests that psychotic discourse, while incoherent on the level of topic, may be coherent on another level---that of frame. She shows how the patient consistently creates different frames of talk and correctly assesses the situation in which she finds herself. Using sociolinguistic discourse analysis, conversational analysis, and frame analysis, Ribeiro's study demonstrates the importance of contextualization in interaction, forcing us to reconsider what behavior we term "crazy".

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195066159
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	12/28/1994
Series:	Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.06(w) x 9.31(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Federal University of Rio de Janeiro

Editorial Reviews

"I know of no other work in this area that pays such close attention to the moment-by-moment linguistics and interactional work that can furnish the evidence required for a study of cross-cultural differences among psychoses. It is detailed studies like the present one that lay the groundwork on which to build cross-cultural comparisons."—Anthropological Linguistics

"Ribeiro has written an intriguing book....Coherence in Psychotic Discourse stands as a solid exemplar of qualitative discourse analysis."—Language in Society

From the Publisher