The condensation consists of:
- (a) Square is a quadrate,
- (b) The square has four angles.
From these examples it should be evident that the numerous contaminations appearing in distracted attention are somewhat similar to the mediate associations which appear under distraction in the simple word reactions. It is well known that our experiments have shown that in distractibility there is moderate increase of the mediate associations.
The concurrence of three experimenters, Stransky, myself, and dementia præcox, can be no accident. It proves the correctness of our conceptions and is another confirmation of the symptom of apperceptive weakness, which of all the degenerative symptoms of dementia præcox stands out most prominently.
Stransky points out that contamination has frequently produced such bizarre word formations that they unfailingly recall the neologisms of dementia præcox. That a great number of neologisms are really brought about in this manner I am convinced. Pointing to the picture of a horse a patient remarks,[1] "This is a domestic-burden," by which he means:
- (a) The horse is a domestic animal,
- (b) The horse is a beast of burden.
Based on clinical observation Neisser[2] remarked in 1898 that the newly formed words, which according to the rule as well as the roots are neither verbs nor nouns, are really no words at all but represent sentences inasmuch as they always serve to allegorize (Versinnbildlichung) a whole process. This expression of Neisser indicates the idea of condensation. He even goes so far as to talk directly about the allegorization of a whole process. Right here I should like to call attention to the fact that in his work "Die Traumdeutung"[3] Freud showed that there is a great
- ↑ Given by translators as play of words, in author's example can not be translated.
- ↑ Neisser: Über die Sprachneubildungen Geisteskranker. Vortrag. 74. Sitzung. d. Vereins Ostdeutsch. Irrenärzte in Breslau. Allgem. Zeitschr. f. Psych., LV, p. 443.
- ↑ Based on a large empirical material, Kraepelin, in his work, Über Sprachstörungen im Traume (Psychol. Arbeiten, Bd. V, H. I), also occupies himself with these questions. In reference to the psychological genesis of the phenomena in question, Kraepelin's assertions show that he
