Use of the proverbs test for differentiating schizophrenics from normals.

Abstract

In the Proverbs Test (10), the subject is asked to tell the meaning of a proverb. For normal subjects, even as young as fifth graders, this request readily stimulates what Goldstein refers to as the attitude. Indeed, the process of translating the concrete symbols of a proverb into generalized concepts is almost explicitly described in one of Goldstein's characterizations of abstraction: In the abstract attitude, we transgress the immediately given specific aspect or sense impression; we abstract from particular properties. We detach ourselves from the given impression, and the individual thing represents to us an accidental sample or representativ e of a category (7, pp. 18-19). Benjamin (3) believed that the breakdown of verbal abstraction so commonly present in schizophrenia could be investigated by proverbs. Goldstein (8) claimed that the findings of the test for abstraction and concreteness which he and his associates had developed for investigating organic damage had relevance for research with schizophrenia and pointed out the need for more measures of