Coherence in Psychotic Discourse (Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics) - Softcover

Ribeiro, Branca Telles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195066154 ISBN 13: 9780195066159

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1994

Synopsis

This fascinating study explores the ways of establishing coherence in the discourse of a thought-disordered patient. Ribeiro analyses 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.

About this title

Review

`a significant contribution to the field of study of psychotic narrative and of discourse analysis more generally' (Lorraine Obler, City University of New York)

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195066154
• ISBN 13: 9780195066159
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 342