LINGUIST List 7.1001

Tue Jul 9 1996

Sum: Language and paranoia

Editor for this issue: Ann Dizdar <dizdartam2000.tamu.edu>

Directory

1. , sum: language and paranoia

from: fortunaglas.apc.org.
date: July 8, 1996
Paranoia: summary.

Let me thank all those who answered my question about
language and Paranoia:

01) ktkettunen
02) Andrew Merrison
03) Claudia Pruen
04) Christina Alexandri
05) cronkhi
06) pamela klebaum
08) Meiligson Sara

The question was:
>On Sun, 23 Jun 1996, The Linguist List wrote:
>Subject: Qs: language and paranoia
Dear linguists? Does anybody know anything about the
manifestation of paranoia in language?
I have found out that they:
- like to write with capital letters
- divide people into 'honest' and 'treacherous',
- divide people into 'friends' and 'enemies'
- like 'light' ('luz' en Espanol)
- like 'clear'
- like 'future'
- like religion ("God", 'son", 'father')
- like 'fatherland", 'home', 'house'
- like 'heart'
- like 'I'
But what else? i need at least 5 features more.
Truly Yours, Valeri Belianine
e-mail: fortunaglas.apc.org. :)
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Here is a short summary:

* Ronald J. Siegel's book "Whispers, voices of paranoia"
might give some hints about Paranoia. It contains several
case stories about paranoia and is well written. It does not
deal especially with the manifestations of paranoia in
writing but is very informative about paranoia itself.

* There is in Paranoia a large proportion of capitalisation

* There might be some interesting things about Paranoia in
G.K.Zipf's "Human Behaviour and the principle of least
effort" (1949, reprinted in the sixties).
In the book, there's a chapter where Zipf deals with
quantitative evidence in texts written by mentally ill
people. There's a possibility that there is a paranoid
among them. Zipf has published about that separately, the
titles etc. of which publications (no mono.!)

* It is common for paranoiacs to speak of "one". They also
use the passive voice to describe their own beliefs,
perceptions or feelings.

* the features collected seem misleading. They only might
describe a person with strong convictions, which should
certainly not be confused with paranoia. People can get
paranoid over things that have nothing whatsoever to do with
their national/religoiuos/ideological beliefs i.e. with
"success" or "sports" or "cars" etc. There are whole nations
of people with strong convictions about certain things which
can be justified by millions of reasons - and I don't
believe that so many people are paranoid: These criteria
seem to be very restrictive and arise a lot of
misunderstandings.

* It is common for paranoiacs to speak of "one". They also
use the passive voice to describe their own beliefs,
perceptions or feelings.

* From a discourse perspective, a seminal book on panic
disorder (not paranoia) is by Elinor Ochs. It was published
in 1995 or 1996.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
As for me, I have written
- a book "Psycholinguistic Aspects of Literary Text" (Moscow
Stae Univ., 1988) and have just send the manuscript
- "Introduction to Psychiatric Linguistics" to
Germany. And I am preparing the third edition of this book
titled
- "Models of the World in Fiction".
In the books i call:
paranoid texts - "light",
epileptoid - "dark",
hysteroid - "beautious",
depressive - "sad"
maniac - "merry".

The above-mentioned info will be useful for me.
If anybody of linguists is able to help me with publishing a
book with a similar title in English (because these ones are
in Russian) i shall be grateful. Somewhere in the beginning
of 1997. Thank You in advance,
Truly Yours,
Full Professor of Moscow State Linguistic University,
Associated professor of Moscow State University
named after Lomonosov Valeri P. Belianine
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
 <end> :-)