Word salad is a symptom of mental illnesses like schizophrenia, where words are jumbled together incoherently. It is not intentional and can be accompanied by excessive speech and clang associations. Treatment involves psychotropic medication.
Word salad is a term used to describe the psychological speech disorder schizophasia, a common symptom of mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. Just like a salad in which different vegetables or fruits are mixed, schizophasia is a random jumble of words. It is important to note that true word salad is not created intentionally by a person, but rather results due to an involuntary and compulsive speech disorder.
Many people who speak in the incoherent speech known as word salad or schizophasia also have logorrhea, which is an excessive amount of speech. Not all people have both schizophasia and talkativeness. While schizophasia is always inconsistent, talkativeness may or may not be.
Correct or incorrect grammar can occur in word salad. Even when the grammar is correct, the sentences are still incoherent. An example of grammatically incorrect schizophasia might be something like “Blue is afraid that no carpet cat is afraid of bricks of orderly disorder.” The words are said at random by people who have schizophasia. Philosopher Noam Chomsky is well known for his studies in language and cognitive science; his famous grammatically correct example of word salad is “Colorless green ideas sleep soundly.
Words and ideas often get mixed up for a person with a mental disorder such as schizophrenia. In addition to word salads and excessive speech, schizophrenics can use so-called clang associations. Clang associations are random words spoken with sound patterns such as rhymes or alliteration rather than logical meaning. An example of a clang association that could also be a word salad is something like “The running sun made the gun; don’t drink drowning, brown suit.”
Schizophasia is not only difficult for those trying to make sense of what a person is saying, but difficult for the speaker. Since most mental disorders make communication very difficult, the gibberish of word salads only makes the problem worse. The schizophrenic may have something to communicate, but often gets lost in his cluttered language. This, along with other symptoms such as a lack of expressed emotion or sudden, disruptive behavior, can make communicating relationships extremely difficult for schizophrenics.
Treatment for word salad is often with medications called psychotropics. Psychotropic medications are designed to work on the central nervous system to help relieve symptoms of conditions such as schizophrenia. Psychotropic drugs are often prescribed to people with psychosis. Psychosis is a disconnect with reality that typically occurs in schizophrenia and other brain diseases.
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