Telles Ribeiro Branca. Coherence in Psychotic Discourse

Oxford University Press, 1994. — xvi, 320 pages. — (Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics). — ISBN: 0-19-506597-2; ISBN: 0-19-506615-4.In the present volume, Branca Telles Ribeiro analyzes two extensive samples of discourse, comparing and contrasting the structures of coherence that characterize “deviant” talk between a patient and her psychiatrist when the patient first enters a hospital for treatment of an acute psychotic crisis and the “normal” talk used when she is discharged after treatment. Using frame analysis and topic analysis as central tools, Dr. Ribeiro untangles some of the confusion between assessment of language and assessment of thought, and she explains how psychotic discourse exhibits a coherence of its own. Focusing on the effect of frame and topic on establishing discourse coherence, Dr. Ribeiro describes the different forms that coherence takes in the admitting and discharge interviews.Her fascinating study also takes up significant methodological questions concerning the transcription of normal and deviant conversation and the representation of conversation in translation.Coherence in Psychotic Talk
About the Psychiatric Interviews
Analyzing Discourse: Frame and Topic Coherence
Conflicting Frames in the Discharge Interview
Topic Coherence in the Discharge Interview
Topicality in the Admitting Interview: Where Coherence Breaks Down
Frame Analysis in the Admitting Interview: Where Coherence Emerges
Toward ListeningDefinitions of Language and Cognitive Behaviors
Summary of the Patient’s Stay in the Hospital
The Discharge Interview: Topics, Subtopics, and Components
Transcripts