Coherence in Psychotic Discourse

by Branca Telles Ribeiro

Overview

This fascinating study explores the ways of establishing coherence in the discourse of a thought-disordered patient. Ribeiro analyzes the discourse between a doctor and a patient who is under an acute psychotic crisis, and then later, when the patient is deemed recovered. 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, metamessages, and how the patient signals and assesses the frame of talk. Ribeiro concludes that psychotic discourse, while incoherent on the level of topic, may be coherent on another level—that of frame. Using sociolinguistic discourse analysis, conversational analysis, and frame analysis, with a dose of theory from contemporary cognitive psychology, Ribeiro's book demonstrates the importance of contextualization in interaction.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195066159
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	06/23/1994
Series:	Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	9.02(w) x 6.14(h) x 0.93(d)
Lexile:	1210L (what's this?)

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