Coherence in Psychotic Discourse

Based on analysis of two psychiatric interviews, this book investigates ways of establishing coherence in the discourse of a thought-disordered patient. In the first interview, the patient is diagnosed as being in an acute psychotic state. In the second, the same patient is considered to be fully recovered and ready to be discharged from hospital. Ribeiro concludes that psychotic discourse, while incoherent on the level of topic, is coherent on another - that of frame. Hence both topic and frame analysis contribute to an understanding of psychotic discourse and of the contexts of talk where discourse emerges.