An Experimental Inquiry into Some Aspects of the Motor Behaviour and Personality of Tiqueurs

Abstract

Tics are involuntary, repetitive or stereotyped movements which apparently lack purpose and which, with adults, tend to be permanent or long-term abnormal aspects of the individual's motor behaviour. The question arises whether certain basic psycho-motor and personality traits characterize persons who develop tics. No previous experimental work on this problem has been reported. In the present research, therefore, a preliminary attempt was made to describe precisely, by the use of psychological tests, certain aspects of the motor behaviour and some of the personality characteristics of tic patients and to compare the results with a similar examination carried out on matched, but non-tic, control patients.