On the phenomena of "opposite speech."

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Abstract
It is the purpose of this paper to consider "opposite speech" within the categories of a theory of the development of cogni-tion-a theory concerned with general, formal properties of cognitive activity, obtaining in phylogenesis, ontogenesis, cultural evolution, psychopathology, etc. The fundamental principle of this comparative developmental approach to cognition is that wherever development occurs, it proceeds from a relatively global and undifferentiated state to one of increasing differentiation, articulation, and integration. . . ." Several lines of evidence are cited. Two relevant experiments are discussed. They suggest "that the processes underlying "opposite speech" occur not only in a few schizophrenics employing a strange means to avoid anxiety or to express hostility, but may be found in any individual, characteristically or momentarily operating under conditions conducive to a primitivization of the level of symbolic articulation and organization of experience. 28 references.

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