ABSTRACT
THE preceding chapters on cognitive focusing, reasoning, and concept formation have considered aspects of schizophrenic ego functioning related to disturbed thinking. This and the following chapter deal with a person’s relation to reality and features of schizophrenia that derive from disturbances of perception. Schizophrenia is characterized by a detachment from reality that Bleuler originally labeled autism, and detachment from reality is basically a malfunctioning of the perceptual processes. This view is expressed by a number of researchers (e.g., Klein, 1951) who stress that perceptual investigation is important to personality research precisely because perception represents an individual’s point of contact with reality.
