A RELIABLE CLINICAL TECHNIQUE FOR INVESTIGATION OF THE EXPERIENCED REALITY AND UNREALITY QUALITIES CONNECTED WITH EVERYDAY LIFE EXPERIENCES IN PSYCHOTIC AND NON‐PSYCHOTIC PERSONS

Abstract

Eight different pairs of positive and negative qualities of experienced reality are defined. It is described in detail how these qualities can be recorded in relation to specified varieties of experience: a)sensory perceptions, b)fantasies, and c)"thinking of actually existing objects or properties in persons." In a study of 15 non-psychotic patients it was found with a very high reliability that the three varieties of experience each had their characteristic constellation of positive and negative values of the eight qualities of reality. It is pointed out that knowledge of such normal constellations is a logical prerequisite for being able to classify other varieties of experience (hallucinations, delusions, and others) as being pathological.