A study of the impairment of “abstract behavior” in schizophrenic patients

Conclusions

• 1. From the results of the tests described we may conclude that a type of patient diagnosed as dementia præcox shows the difference in behavior previously described. The difference between the schizophrenic patients studied and normal individuals lies in the capacity for abstract behavior. Both the normal and abnormal show concrete behavior in certain situations where concrete behavior is adequate. In the sorting tests, the normal may not seem to differ from the abnormal as long as it is possible to perform a task successfully in a concrete way, but the normal individual is also able to sort in another, more abstract way which the abnormal cannot do. The abnormal proceeds in a concrete way on all sorting tests. Thus, the characteristic defect of the schizophrenic patients studied was an impairment of the capacity for the type of behavior we call “abstract behavior.”

• 2. The tests applied in this investigation allow a differentiation between the capacity for abstract and concrete behavior. Performance on these tests allow judgment of whether the patient is able to proceed only in a concrete way or to proceed in both an abstract and a concrete way. Such judgment is reached by using tests made up of steps which demand more or less abstract behavior on the part of the patient.