Perceptual Misinterpretation and Distortion of Social Reality in Schizophrenia

One of the most important aspects of the schizophrenic person's interpersonal relationships about which there has been consistent agreement among clinical observers is his vulnerability to social injury. Because of this vulnerability he is subject to frequent episodes of severe anxiety which necessitate the adoption and employment of a variety of defensive maneuvers of an interpersonal nature. Defenses such as denial are also elaborated to control the registration and reporting of threatening information concerned with social interaction.

Sometimes the interpersonal defenses are primitive such as withdrawal and at other times much more subtle. An investigation of these interpersonal defenses was undertaken by tachistoscopically presenting four pictures of two people interacting and two of single persons. This was based upon the assumption that the maneuvers organized to avoid social injury would be generalized to pictures of threatening interpersonal situations as well as occurring in response to the situations themselves. The six pictures in order of presentation were: (1) a man writing very intently and signalling a young girl to wait with his hand extended; (2) a young girl with a look of pain on her face falling down cement stairs; (3) one woman comforting a second woman who has her head on the shoulder and arms around the first; (4) a young adult girl embracing an older woman as they both are happily reunited; (5) a man and woman sitting together at a table with her hand on his and attempting to reach him emotionally without any apparent success; and (6) a man standing on a stairway holding to a railing and the opposite wall with arms extended and a very frightened look on his face. Ambiguity was introduced into the perception of these structured pictures by tachistoscopically exposing them for very brief periods of time. The short exposure times