The Nature of Schizophrenic Configuration

Abstract

Following our brief survey of comparable childish, primitive, and mediumistic creations we finally dare to tackle the question of the nature of schizophrenic configuration. We are not about to count the frequency with which characteristics occur in order to compare it with the frequency of the same traits elsewhere. Such simple statistics would not do for our complicated problems. We shall consider any trait distinctive for any particular type of picture only when it is unusually rare in other types. Otherwise the trait has only the validity of an obvious, describable quality. We have discussed the range of these qualities comprehensively in the first part of this section. It is now a matter of sifting out, with the help of the comparative material, the traits which occur in other kinds of pictures, to separate from them the really distinctive and peculiar ones, and to discern in these the essence of schizophrenic configuration. We are aware from the first that we are no longer able to grasp the essence either in the sensuous qualities or in the formal qualities but only in the immediately visible. In it expressive values manifest themselves to us affectively, which we can transmit verbally only to those who have themselves experienced them. We have therefore escaped the domain of rationalism and gladly accept the accusation of speculation by all kinds of “positivists” as long as we can come close to describing the heart of the phenomenon for those of a mind similar to ours.