[Verbal behavior and communication experience of psychosomatic patients in the first psychoanalytic interview in connection with the concept of "pensée opératoire'].

This pilot-study was concerned with differences in speech behaviour and communication as experienced in psychoanalytically oriented initial interviews. In line with the ideas of Marty, Fain, de M'Uzan, David and Sami-Ali, 38 patients were divided into 3 diagnostic groups according to the extent of "pensée opératoire" and the level of functioning of the psychic sphere in each case. The communication experienced was recorded with the help of a communication questionnaire developed in Giessen. The speech behaviour for the interview as a whole and in its development over time was registered automatically and record in 29 categories by the Giessen Speech Analyzer. The following results are reported: --The two groups with more extensive "pensée opératoire" (A1, A2) differed from the character-neurotic patients in 13 of the 29 speech categories registered. The differences between groups A1 and A2 were not significant. --The communication as experienced by the patients did not differ between groups, but the therapist experienced the patients from the 3 diagnostic groups differently. The information gathered from the therapist in the communication questionnaire agreed by and large with the data collected automatically. --For the development of the interview over time, characteristic changes in the frequency of various speech categories were found but these were in the main unrelated to the diagnostic groupings.