Speech and psychopathology.

Abstract

The purpose of this review is to report on the main directions of research in speech analysis as they relate to various psychiatric states. The variables most often analyzed in both speech and psychiatry, and the procedures which have been used by different authors to establish relationships between them are described. Particular attention is devoted to three groups of variables: the psychological states of the speaker, the vocal characteristics of the speaker, and the listener's perception of the speaker's state of mind. The results of observations and experiments are reviewed from the "Founding period" (i.e., the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries) when the great European psychopathologists clinically defined vocal characteristics in mental illness and when later the first correlations between acoustical measurements of speech parameters and psychological and psycho-pathological states were established. The "Modern period" (from 1950 to the present time) is then considered when more sophisticated technology has been introduced and quantities of data collected. In conclusion, the authors insist on the interest of further research especially (1) in the field of possible common regulation of speech and of mental functions and (2) in the use of speech as an objective reflection of mental state giving help in diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutic evaluation.