Study of Association in Insanity

Study of Association in Insanity

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Title: A Study of Association in Insanity
Author: Grace Helen Kent
Release Date: October, 2005 [EBook #9172] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on September 10, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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A STUDY OF ASSOCIATION IN INSANITY
BY
GRACE HELEN KENT, A.M.
AND
A.J. ROSANOFF, M.D.
KINGS PARK STATE HOSPITAL, N.Y.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PART I. ASSOCIATION IN NORMAL SUBJECTS.
§1. Method of Investigation
§2. The Normal Standard
§3. The Frequency Tables
§4. Normal Associational Tendencies
§5. Practical Considerations
§6. An Empirical Principle of Normal Association

PART II. ASSOCIATION IN INSANE SUBJECTS.
§1. General Survey of Pathological Material
§2. Classification of Reactions
§3. Non-Specific Reactions; Doubtful Reactions
§4. Individual Reactions; Explanation of Groups and Methods of Application
Normal Reactions Pathological Reactions Derivatives of Stimulus Words Partial Dissociation Non-Specific Reactions Sound Reactions Word Complements Particles of Speech Complete Dissociation Perseveration Neologisms Unclassified Reactions Normal Reactions Circumstantial Reactions Distraction Incoherent Reactions
§5. Order of Preference
§6. Errors Involved in the Use of Arbitrary Objective Standards
§7. Analysis of Pathological Material Dementia Pr?cox Paranoic Conditions Epilepsy General Paresis Manic-Depressive Insanity Involutional Melancholia; Alcoholic Dementia; Senile Dementia
§8. Pathological Reactions from Normal Subjects
§9. Number of Different Words given as Reactions
§10. Co-operation of the Subject
§11. Summary
Acknowledgments
INDEX TO FREQUENCY TABLES AND APPENDIX
THE FREQUENCY TABLES
APPENDIX TO THE FREQUENCY TABLES

PART I.
ASSOCIATION IN NORMAL SUBJECTS.
Among the most striking and commonly observed manifestations of insanity are certain disorders of the flow of utterance which appear to be dependent upon a derangement of the psychical processes commonly termed association of ideas. These disorders have to some extent been made the subject of psychological experimentation, and the object of this investigation is to continue and extend the study of these phenomena by an application of the experimental method known as the association test.

§ 1. METHOD OF INVESTIGATION.
In this investigation we have followed a modified form of the method developed by Sommer,[1] the essential feature of which is the statistical treatment of results obtained by uniform technique from a large number of cases.
[Footnote 1: Diagnostik der Geisteskrankheiten, p. 112.]
The stimulus consists of a series of one hundred spoken words, to each of which the subject is directed to react by the first word which it makes him think of. In the selection of the stimulus words, sixty-six of which were taken from the list suggested by Sommer, we have taken care to avoid such words as are especially liable to call up personal experiences, and have so arranged the words as to separate any two which bear an obviously close relation to one another. After much preliminary experimentation we adopted the following list of words:
01 Table 02 Dark 03 Music 04 Sickness 05 Man 06 Deep 07 Soft 08 Eating 09 Mountain 10 House 11 Black 12 Mutton 13 Comfort 14 Hand 15 Short 16 Fruit 17 Butterfly 18 Smooth 19 Command 20 Chair 21 Sweet 22 Whistle 23 Woman 24 Cold 25 Slow 26 Wish 27 River 28 White 29 Beautiful 30 Window 31 Rough 32 Citizen 33 Foot 34 Spider 35 Needle 36 Red 37 Sleep 38 Anger 39 Carpet 40 Girl 41 High 42 Working 43 Sour 44 Earth 45 Trouble 46 Soldier 47 Cabbage 48 Hard 49 Eagle 50 Stomach
No attempt is made to secure uniformity of external conditions for the test; the aim has been rather to make it so simple as to render strictly experimental conditions unnecessary. The test may be made in any room that is reasonably free from distracting influences; the subject is seated with his back toward the experimenter, so that he cannot see the record; he is requested to respond to each stimulus word by one word, the first word that occurs to him other than the stimulus word itself, and on no account more than one word. If an untrained subject reacts by a sentence or phrase, a compound word, or a different