SPATIAL BEHAVIOR AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

Abstract

The literature on human spatial behavior is reviewed and an experiment that studied interpersonal approach distance in psychiatric inpatients is reported. Thirty women patients, diagnosed as falling within schizophrenic, depressive or neurotic gross categories, were asked to approach an object person leading with various aspects of their own bodies and stopping when getting closer would make them uncomfortable. Their final stances in relation to the object person were photographed, and the distances and postures were measured on the basis of this record. The trials early in hospitalization were compared with those just before discharge. The schizophrenic group was the most distant group on initial measurements and established greater physical closeness later in hospitalization when clinical state was judged as improved. The depressive group, while standing closer than the schizophrenic group on initial measurements, also moved closer to the object person. The depressive patients were far more likely to tense up their bodies in general and in a manner that integrated bodily parts. The schizophrenic group had incongruous and fragmentary distributions of tension areas. The results supported the hypothesis that schizophrenic patients preserve unusually great space between themselves and others during the acute stage of illness. The relationship of spatial behavior to the body image, to nonverbal communication and to impulse-defense configurations is described. The defensive maneuver of withdrawal is the principle focus. It is suggested that motoric and perceptual withdrawal processes are used in regressive states leading to alterations in spatial behavior, interpersonal distances and body behavior. In less regressive states cognitive withdrawal processes are more apparent.