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 Experimental Psychopathology
 
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 University of California, Los Angeles 
 
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 LOS ANGELES 
 
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 [Reprinted from the Psychological Bulletin, April, 1912, Vol. IX, No. 4.] 
 
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 1^ 
 
 EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOPATHOLOGY,^ 
 
 I 
 BY PROFESSOR SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ .v' 
 
 Government Hospital for the Insane, Washington, D. C. 
 
 Much has been written during the past few years concerning the 
 mutual relations of psychology and medical science. The establish- 
 ment of laboratories of psychology in hospitals for the insane, in 
 institutions for the feeble-minded, and in universities for the examina- 
 tion of abnormal children has resulted in a wider and more general 
 appreciation of the possible advantages which may accrue to both 
 psychology and medicine by the combination. This interest has 
 been shown to some extent by various attempts to give names to 
 each new application or junction of psychology with one of the medical 
 disciplines, and at present we have to deal with abnormal psychology, 
 psychopathology, pathopsychology and clinical psychology. Many 
 other divisions are made, and the extremes to which this attempted 
 division may go is well illustrated in Wallin's article (14), where we 
 find the terms "clinical psychology," "psycho-clinical," "medical 
 psychology," and "medico-clinical" as well as psychopathology. In 
 many instances the reader is left to judge whether or not each term is 
 to designate something different from the others. 
 
 A practical distinction which may be made and held to is that 
 when an investigator is concerned chiefly with the general course of a 
 
 1248ti7
 
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 146 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ 
 
 disease and its treatment his interests are in psychiatry, but when his 
 chief concern is the investigation of the development or interrelations 
 of mental symptoms his interests are in psychology, and the emphasis, 
 either on the psychological or the pathological aspect, makes his work 
 either pathopsychological or psychopathological. This distinction is 
 well brought out in the work of Grcgor (5). In this book Gregor, 
 like his predecessor Storring, gives a general account of the mental 
 processes in a variety of diseases. Although it can not be said to be 
 a complete exposition of all forms of abnormal mental conditions, the 
 book gives a better view of the present status of psychopathology 
 than any other single work. Here one may find a summary of many 
 of the experimental results in psychopathology which are scattered 
 throughout psychiatric and psychological journals, but there is a 
 Germanic exclusiveness which slightly mars the work as a whole. 
 Many of the chapters dealing with psychopathology have companion 
 chapters dealing with the normal psychology of the processes under 
 consideration which serve to bridge the gap between normal psy- 
 chology and psychopathology and also to introduce the physician 
 to general and experimental psychology. The material included in 
 the book is mostly two or more years old, so that our review precludes 
 the possibility of much more than mention of the titles of the chapters, 
 which are as follows: psychology and psychiatry; psychopathology 
 of time sense; reaction experiments; pathology of apprehension; 
 association reactions; association experiments with the insanef 
 methods of testing memory; pathology of memory; psychology o; 
 evidence; experiments on the psychology of evidence of the insane; 
 psychology and pathology of attention; methods of testing atten- 
 tion; experimental testing of movement; bodily changes accom- 
 panying mental states; mental work; methods of testing general 
 intelligence. 
 
 A notable omission is that of the sensory equipment of the insane, 
 but this defect is not due solely to the author but to the great body 
 of those who investigate the abnormal. It is strange that although 
 psychologists have devoted much time to the investigation of sensa- 
 tion, little or no work of this character has been published regarding 
 the sensory equipment of the abnormal. Psychiatrists have dealt 
 with conduct (or movement, if you will) to the exclusion of sensation 
 except in as far as the latter topic bears directly upon hallucinations 
 and illusions. They criticize the psychologists for their analytic 
 sensation work and demand the investigation of "conduct," showing 
 thereby a lack of appreciation of the fact that "conduct" is a complex 
 depending, in part at least, upon sensations.
 
 EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOPATHOLOGY 147 
 
 In some respects the book of Whipple is an equally notable con- 
 tribution to general psychopathology (15). Here psychiatrists may 
 find details of more exact methods of testing patients than have 
 usually been employed by them, but which for them have hitherto 
 not been available in simple form, or which have been grouped in 
 college text-books or scattered through many psychological journals. 
 The partial limitation of the object of the book to the study of children 
 prevents a full consideration of it from a psychiatric {i. e., psycho- 
 pathological) point of view, but many of the methods should prove 
 useful to those who wish to examine the mental states of the insane in 
 ways more exact than those usually employed. From personal expe- 
 rience, the writer is inclined to doubt the psychiatric (z. e., the psycho- 
 pathological) value of some of the methods advocated, and certain 
 matters have not been taken up which have great value for the 
 psychologically inclined psychiatrist. Many of the methods can be 
 used with the insane only as research methods, others are very simple 
 and of great practical value but are parts of the general equipment 
 of those who have to deal with the insane, e. g., tests for heterophoria 
 et al. Because the general character of the tests which are recom- 
 mended is simple, Whipple's book is much more useful to those who 
 deal with the insane than most other works dealing with experimental 
 method, and in this connection mention may be made of the report 
 of the special committee of the American Psychological Association 
 on the standardization of experimental procedure in tests (12). The 
 
 \ committee apparently had in view the application of the methods 
 they advocate solely to the normal. Few of the methods recom- 
 
 "^^ mended are useful in the examination of the insane, and it is to be 
 
 regretted that the part of the committee which has already reported 
 
 has apparently neglected to deal with certain practical relations of 
 
 V psychology and has restricted its report largely to the consideration 
 
 [S^ of the testing of normal individuals. Two of the topics discussed 
 in the report may, it is true, have only a limited bearing upon prob- 
 lems of psychopathology, but that of mental imagery may be impor- 
 tant in the consideration of the types of reaction, of hallucinations, 
 or delusions, etc., of the abnormal. 
 
 Although, as indicated above, experimental psychologists have 
 devoted a large part of their time to the investigation of sensations, 
 Gregor's work passes over sensation disturbances, and Whipple's 
 book fails to give indications of methods of testing some of the sensa- 
 tions which at times are much altered in the insane and other abnormal 
 classes. Thus, we find no discussion of methods of testing taste, 

 
 H^ SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ 
 
 smell, temperature and the threshold of touch. It may also be noted 
 that in general Whipple's tests of movement are directed towards the 
 testing of motor equipment as such, rather than to the sensations of 
 movement, which are also often disturbed in pathological conditions, 
 not only in the insane but also in the feeble-minded. Recent personal 
 work, not yet published, indicates that the sensory equipment of 
 the insane and of other abnormal classes must be investigated as of 
 equal importance to the motor or conduct sphere, and that there 
 are as many sensory disturbances or deviations in the abnormal as 
 there are motor or conduct disturbances. It is surprising that 
 psychiatrists and psychopathologists have not investigated the 
 sensory equipment of their patients, but part of their failure to do 
 so may be due to the fact that they have been unable to obtain 
 from the normal psychologists data suitable to compare with their 
 own. It is largely because of the necessity of having data on 
 untrained subjects that some psychopathologists have been com- 
 pelled to devote a large part of their time to experiments on 
 normal, but psychologically untrained, subjects so that a direct com- 
 parison with similar results on abnormal, but equally psychologically, 
 untrained subjects may be made. This is what the writer has been 
 compelled to do in his work on the sensations mediated through the 
 skin and the underlying tissues (3), for he has found no available data 
 for purposes of comparison. The methods can usually not be as 
 fine as those used in a purely psychological research, in other words 
 they must be clinical. The results from this work may be little 
 different from those on trained subjects with finer methods, and 
 perhaps no great amount of material for theoretical psychology may 
 accrue from the work, but it is needed for purposes of comparison 
 as practical psychological standards. If we are to have much advance 
 in our understanding of the abnormal and any advance in the under- 
 standing of the normal from the study of the abnormal, many tests 
 must be devised and applied to a number of normal, but untrained, 
 subjects and the same tests applied to the numerous abnormal classes. 
 For example, the usual procedures of reaction time experiments can 
 be applied to only a very small percentage of the abnormal. 
 Sommer's tridimensional analyzer can be used with normal subjects 
 but can not be used with many abnormal. Much simpler instruments 
 and methods may be devised to m.ake tests of a similar character 
 and have wide applicability and give valuable results. 
 
 Largely on account of the value association tests have for diag- 
 nosis, the number of researches on the association of ideas in the
 
 EXPERIMEXTAL PSYCHOPJTIIOLOGY I49 
 
 insane is more than on any other topic. Some of the more important 
 of these are worthy of even more extended consideration than can be 
 given in this review. Of the greatest value is that of Kent and 
 Rosanoff (7). These investigators obtained 100 free associations from 
 each of 1,000 normal subjects and have carefully tabulated the results 
 according to their frequency values, so that the results of any ab- 
 normal subject may be directly compared with those of the 1,000 
 normal subjects. The grouping of the normal reactions resulted in 
 the formulation of a table, or tables, of actual facts without the ex- 
 tended consideration of the logical characters of the reactions, as has 
 been done by many previous investigators. Since this review is con- 
 cerned mainly with pathological advances and methods, we must 
 pass over the normal results and consider only the results on the 250 
 insane patients. The results on 108 cases of dementia prsecox showed 
 a larger number of "individual" reactions than the normal or than 
 any other form of insanity studied; of 33 cases of paranoic conditions, 
 a heterogeneous group, many showed no departure from the normal, 
 and only a few cases closely allied to the dementia praecox group gave 
 evidence of great abnormality; 24 cases of epilepsy showed many 
 repetitions and many particles of speech as association reactions, and 
 it is worthy of note that these cases were mostly in a state of advanced 
 dementia; 32 cases of paresis gave varying reactions, those "pre- 
 senting no considerable dementia or confusion and cases in a state of 
 remission" gave practically normal reactions, and those showing 
 mental deterioration showed many repetitions, associations to pre- 
 vious reactions, etc.; 32 cases of manic-depressive insanity showed 
 slight variations from the normal, although there was a number of 
 "sound reactions, word complements, and particles"; in 8 cases of 
 involutional melancholia no evident abnormality was observed; 6 
 cases of alcoholic dementia showed no evidence of abnormality; and 
 only one of the 4 cases of senile dementia showed more than the usual 
 number of individual reactions. 
 
 In this connection the works of Klepper (9), of Kilian (8) and of 
 Nathan (10) deserve mention. Klepper investigated the associations 
 of epileptics and katatonics, which types of cases sometimes have a 
 somewhat similar symptomatology and which are, therefore, difficult 
 to differentiate. The characters of the associations differ in the two 
 types which were investigated. Without going into the enumeration 
 of the logical differences in the types of reactions it is evident that 
 there are sufficiently well marked differences, and these are so great 
 that the author concludes that he is able to differentiate one type
 
 150 SHEPHERD irORY franz 
 
 from the other by the association tests alone, without having any 
 history or case record. Kilian tested the associations of a case of 
 manic-depressive insanity over a period of five months, during which 
 there was a return to the normal condition. He found a gradual 
 decrease in the number of klang and non-understandable reactions, a 
 decrease in a number of perseverations of the associations, but there 
 was a greater tendency to repetition of the stimulus words. Nathan 
 worked on a case of imbecilit}', investigating principally the so-called 
 senseless reactions, and found that many of these are due to sense 
 impressions obtained or received immediately before or during the 
 course of the experiments, others were due to ideas present in the mind 
 of the subject, which were more or less stable and apparently personal, 
 and some others were reactions to stimulus words given in previous 
 tests. This study is of great psychological interest on account of its 
 analysis of the senseless reactions, for these are more frequent than 
 is commonly believed, and, as the writer has pointed out in another 
 place, they can not be considered to be senseless for the subject, but 
 senseless only as far as the logical beliefs of the experimenter are 
 concerned. 
 
 The attempts to explain some symptoms in abnormal cases by 
 tests of the effects of drugs, a method with which the name of Kraepe- 
 lin is closely associated, have been continued in the Munich clinic. 
 The work of Schnidtmann (13) is an account of an effort to discover 
 the reason for certain prolonged association reactions in certain 
 pathological cases. Seven subjects were given from 40 to 50 c.c. of 
 alcohol, and their associations tested before and after its ingestion. 
 One of the subjects gave shortened times after the taking of the 
 alcohol, and the other six gave normal or lengthened times. The 
 quality of the associations differed in the individual cases, but these 
 are impossible to summarize in a few words. Another series of tests 
 to determine the effects of alcohol had its origin in the Munich 
 laboratory. Goring (4) tested the effect of similar doses of alcohol 
 on muscular force, apprehension, and the ability to add in 18 cases 
 (11 men and 7 women). Preliminary series of tests were made and 
 the testing series were begun 20 minutes after the ingestion of the 
 alcohol. The tests of muscular force were the last of the series and 
 these were usually begun 42 minutes after the taking of the dose of 
 alcohol. All subjects showed less ability to apprehend after the 
 taking of the alcohol, for there were more mistakes; some were un- 
 able to add as many figures, although there were marked deviations 
 both up and down; and the muscular force varied, sometimes being
 
 EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOPATHOLOGY 151 
 
 greater and sometimes less after the alcohol. The seven women were 
 given different amounts of alchool, and it is not possible to make a 
 full comparison with the men, but in general it may be concluded that 
 the women showed more effects from their doses than did the men, 
 and the author believes they are less resistant, probably being less 
 accustomed to the drug. In neither of these two experiments (Goring 
 and Schnidtmann), although valuable in themselves, can it be said 
 that all the precautions were taken that should be taken. Rivers 
 has shown that alcohol when taken and not recognized does not have 
 the marked effect that Kraepelin and his pupils attribute to it, and 
 the excellent method of Rivers, or a similar one which would give as 
 good control, should have been used in these experiments if the results 
 are to be accepted as they stand. No account of Rivers' work has 
 been taken, or at least the later work of Rivers is not mentioned, and 
 since we know from that work how great an influence upon the re- 
 actions "knowledge" may have, we are not justified at present in 
 concluding that the results of the work of Schnidtmann and Goring 
 are more than suggestive. 
 
 The application of psychological methods to the investigation of 
 therapeutic procedure has been made in the work of Busch and 
 Plaut (2), who investigated the effect of continuous warm baths upon 
 pulse rate, on temperature, on blood-pressure, on muscular force, 
 on associations, on choice reaction time, on apprehension, and on 
 addition ability.' Baths of two hours' duration were taken and the 
 effects of these were investigated in relation to the above mentioned 
 processes in 3 normal subjects and 2 hypomaniacal subjects. In 
 general there was a slight increase in temperature, no noticeable 
 change in the pulse rate, and a slight decrease in the blood pressure. 
 The results with the ergograph (muscular force experiments) were 
 varied, sometimes a greater force than normal was obtained, and 
 sometimes the force was less than normal. The choice reaction time 
 was varied but little, if at all; the accuracy of apprehension was 
 increased about 2 per cent, after the bath; the ability to add was 
 also slightly increased; the character of the associations is difficult 
 to estimate and to summarize. All the results are within the normal 
 variation, and since this is so, the effects of prolonged baths on normal 
 and slightly abnormal individuals may be judged to be insignificant. 
 That such therapeutic measures have a quieting eflfect upon certain 
 excited cases there can be no doubt, and the present work is of value 
 in that it gives a basis for comparison with the more disturbed of the 
 psychiatric cases.
 
 152 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ 
 
 The results of Ranschburg's study of memory (11) are of im- 
 portance for normal and pathological psychology. The method used 
 in the work is that of word pairs, the subject being given pairs of 
 words in a series, and after the series is completed is given the first 
 word of each pair and asked to supply the second word. Five series 
 were made with 6, 6, 9, 9, and 9 pairs respectively. There were 
 calculated the percentages of words retained immediately, the time 
 of reproduction, the percentages of words retained after 24 hours, 
 and the characters of the mistakes. Normal children reproduced 
 correctly from 75 to 100 per cent, immediately and about 80 per cent, 
 after 24 hours. The average time for the reproduction was 2 sec. 
 for children from 6 to 12 years of age, and 1.2 sec. for those between 
 12 and 19. There was only about 25 per cent, correct immediate 
 reproduction in the feeble-minded from 6 to 12 years, and only 60 
 per cent, for those between the ages of 12 and 19; there was a much 
 greater deviation from the normal after 24 hours. The time for 
 reproduction was from i to 10 sec. The general paralytics were poor 
 memorizers; only 2 reproduced correctly as much as 75 per cent, 
 immediately, and 19 of the total number averaged only 7 per cent. 
 Fifteen neurasthenics showed normal memory. Although Ranschburg 
 uses his results as indicators for diagnosis and prognosis, this is suc- 
 cessful only in certain specially selected cases and in groups, but not 
 for each individual case in any special type of psychosis. 
 
 Many tests for the estimation of the general intelligence of abnor- 
 mal subjects have been devised, and Becker (i) discusses some of these 
 in relation to paranoia and to dementia prsecox. The method used 
 by him was a series of questions which called forth observations or 
 statements from the patients. Following are two examples of the 
 type of questions which he used: (i) "Which is heavier, a pound of 
 lead or a pound of feathers.^" (2) "Herodotus says: A lioness 
 can bear only one young, because at its birth the cub destroys the 
 womb of the lioness. Why is this statement false?" Results of 
 these tests can be interpreted only in an indirect fashion, and at 
 times no interpretation is possible. Much depends upon the pre- 
 vious education and training of the individual subject and much 
 more upon his cooperation in the test. At the same time such tests 
 can be used only for large groups if they are intended to have any 
 diagnostic value. 
 
 Numerous insane patients show no reaction to stimuli, and casual 
 observation would tend to lead to the conclusion that the stimuli 
 were not apprehended. Some of these cases return to a more normal
 
 EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOPATHOLOGY I53 
 
 condition and can recount much that occurred during the period 
 when they did not respond. The stimuU were apprehended, but 
 the reactions were inhibited. That these patients may appreciate 
 StimuU has been shown by the galvanic reactions obtained from some 
 of them by Wells and Forbes (i6). One of their cases of catatonic 
 stupor " showed no evidence whatever of consciousness," but reacted 
 galvanically to all forms of stimuli which were applied. One case 
 of senile dementia showed no marked deflections, which would indi- 
 cate that the stimuli had been appreciated. 
 
 Miss Kent's work on the formation of simple habits in cases of ^ 
 dementia prsecox (6) is of great interest for it gives a scientific basis 
 for the work of training of these cases which has been lacking. It is 
 well known that many of these patients may be made very useful 
 about an institution, but there are large numbers which are not trained 
 because it appears on the surface that it would take too long a time to 
 get them to acquire proper habits of work. The results of this work, 
 however, show that it is a comparatively easy matter to get almost any 
 case of dementia praecox trained to perform simple series of movements 
 which are useful. Some of these patients who are normally (sic) 
 destructive and filthy may be taught such movements that the old 
 destructiveness and filthy habits are replaced. One of the most 
 important variables in the work was the cooperation of the subjects, 
 but the tests which were used were of such a character that they 
 were not directly appealing to the subjects and they could not be 
 taken as the best possible conditions for the production of coopera- 
 tion. In general the curves of training resemble those of animals 
 and the method used by the subjects were mostly those of trial and 
 error, although in certain cases the methods were unlike those of 
 animals and those of normal subjects. Continuation of this work, 
 especially in regard to the factors influencing the method of work, are 
 urgently needed, both for psychopathology and for its applications in 
 psychiatry. Here should come tests of the effects of punishments, 
 and of rewards. 
 
 References 
 
 1. Becker, W. H. Zu den Methoden der Intelligenzpriifung. Klinik f. psychische 
 
 u. nervose Krankh., 1910, 5, I-I2. 
 
 2. BuscH, A., and Plaut, F. Ucber die Einwirkung verlangerter warmer Bader auf 
 
 einige korperliche und geistige Funktionen. Psychol. Arbeiten, 19 10, s, 505- 
 527. 
 
 3. Franz, S. I. Touch Sensations in Different Bodily Segments. Govt. IIosp. for 
 
 the Insane, Bull. No. 2, 1910, 60-72. 
 
 4. Goring, H. Vcrgleichcnde Messung dcr Alkoholwirkung. Psychol. Arbeiten, 
 
 191 1, 6, 261-299.
 
 154 SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ 
 
 5. Gregor, a. Leitjaden der experimentellen Psychopathologie. Berlin: S. Karger, 
 
 1910. Pp. 222. 
 
 6. Kent, G. H. Experiments on Habit Formation in Dementia Prsecos. Psychol. 
 
 Rev., 191 1, 18, 275-410. 
 
 7. Kent, G. H., and Rosanoff, A. J. A Study of Association in Insanity. Amer. 
 
 Jour, of Insan., 1910, 67,37-96; 317-S90. 
 
 8. KiLiAN, K. Zur Untcrsuchung der Assoziationen bei Maniakalischen. Klinik 
 
 f. psychische u. nervose Krankh., 1911, 6, 28-82. 
 
 9. Klepper, G. Die Unterscheidung von epileptischen und katatonischen Zustan- 
 
 den, speziell aus den Assoziationen. Klinik f. psychische u. nervose Krankh., 
 1911,6,1-27. 
 
 10. Nathan, E. W. Ueber die sogenannten sinnlosen Reaktioncn belm Assoziations- 
 
 versuch. Klinik f. psychische u. nervose Krankh., 1910, 5, 76-82. 
 
 11. Ranschburg, p. Ueber Art und Wert klinischer Gedachtnismessungen bei 
 
 nervosen und psychischen Krankheiten. III. Die diagnostische und prognostische 
 Ver\vertbarkeit von Gedachtnismessungen. Klinik f. psychische u. nervose 
 Krankh., 1910, 5, 89-194. 
 
 12. PiLLSBURY, W. B., Seashore, C. E., and Angell, J. R. Report of the Committee 
 
 of the American Psychological Association on the Standardization of Procedure 
 in Experimental Tests. Psychol. Rev. Monog., No. 53. Pp. 108. 
 
 13. Schnidtmann, Al. Der Einfluss des Alkohols auf den Ablauf der Vorstellung. 
 
 Psychol. Arbeiten, 191 1, 6, 300-338. 
 
 14. Wallin, J. E. W. The New Clinical Psychology and the Psychoclinicist. Jour, 
 
 of Educ. Psychol., 1911, 2, 121-132; 191-210. 
 
 15. Whipple, G. M. Manual of Mental and Physical Tests. Baltimore: Warwick and 
 
 York, 1910. Pp. 534. 
 
 16. Wells, F. L., and Forbes, A. On Certain Electrical Processes in the Human Body 
 
 and their Relation to Emotional Reactions. (Archives of Psychol., No. 16.) 
 New York: The Science Press, 1911. Pp. 39. 
 
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