What is word salad and why does it happen?

Communication is used on a daily basis, without realizing how complex this ability is and the processes involved in it. only before incoherent or difficult to understand speech, you notice any possible failure to interfere with the dynamics of speech. This is what happens in word salad, a curious phenomenon and a sign of several pathological conditions.

Imagine that you are talking to a friend and you don’t understand anything they say. He speaks fluently and without difficulty, the words seem to be correct, but he expresses them in such a random way that his speech does not make sense; at least for those who listen to it. This is a reality that some people with certain mental or neurological disorders experience. Learn more about it.

What is word salad?

Word salad occurs when In a person’s speech there is no adequate connection in what he says; The terms he uses are mixed together in a confusing and random manner, making his speech incoherent and unintelligible. This phenomenon is also known as schizoaphasia, paragrammatism or incoherence and is a symptom of various neurological or psychiatric conditions.

In this regard, a chapter of the book Introduction to Psychopathology and Psychiatry (2011) states that this disorder is typical of some patients with schizophrenia, although it also appears in people with few alterations in the rest of their mental functions. There are several points to take into account:

This salad is feasible during written expression. The person has difficulties expressing himself or does not have them and speaks fluently, depending on the case. Likewise, the syntactic transformations, such as verb-subject discordance, which makes understanding difficult.Neologisms may arise, terms that the person himself creates by composition or derivation from others, “borrowing” them from other languages ​​or inventing them. According to Barraquer Bordas (1979), paraphasias can also occur; This is the deformation or substitution of some sounds or groups of sounds for others (for example, cat for dog, vase for table or “begro” for black). The words may or may not be grammatically correct, but there is a flaw in the syntax. or in the organization. These words do not connect in a logical sequence and it is not possible for the listener to extract meaning from that speech.

Although the speech seems fluid, the word salad detracts from its coherence.

What does word salad look like?

To illustrate an example of what a conversation with someone who has this alteration is like, check out this fragment captured by Kathie Carpenter in her article Neologisms in ‘Word Salad’: How Schizophrenic Speakers Make Themselves Misunderstood:

– BC: Warm is real free, hot or cold-hot one is fake.

–KC: Is lukewarm false?

– BC: Lukewarm is real in a man. Hot is not in a man, a woman uses cold. One. The Bible says, Revelation says ‘You are neither hot nor cold, lukewarm.’ That is the rewriting (…).

Why does this phenomenon occur?

Paragrammatism has various causes. Sometimes it is considered a symptom of a thought disorder, as in the case of schizophrenia. Here it is assumed that it is thought that is disorganized; The patient’s language is normal and unaffected, but when used to express strange and confusing ideas, it takes that unintelligible form. (Gerson, Benson & Frazier, 1964).

Starting from this point, this phenomenon is generally categorized within formal thought disorders. However, in other cases, such as when it is due to brain damage or injury, Yes, a true speech alteration is observed. This is what we know as aphasia, a disorder that affects receptive language (understanding what we are told) or expressive language (ability to speak and understand).

This salad may result from Wernicke’s aphasia, characterized by fluent but incomprehensible speech. Thus, long sentences are uttered without any meaning, full of errors, distortions and neologisms.

But also it is possible that dementia is the cause of this linguistic incoherence. And in Alzheimer’s and other conditions, circumlocutions (detours in speech), paraphasias and perseverations frequently occur that hinder communication, mentions an article from the University of Cuenca.

How to deal with word salad?

These inconsistencies are not a disease in themselves, so there is no treatment or cure. In reality, it is an alteration of thought or language that can occur as a symptom of other conditions in which intervention must be made accordingly; among them the following:

Dementia. Schizophrenia. Bipolar disorder. Stroke.

For example, when it appears as a positive symptom of schizophrenia, it will be necessary to administer antipsychotics. And if it is aphasia, the person may benefit from participating in speech and language therapy.

However, although the most common thing is to present anosognosia (that is, not being aware of the mistakes they make), it is possible that they do perceive their difficulties, which generates frustration and leads to isolation. Therefore, whenever possible, It is positive to facilitate or expand other means of communication other than verbal language.

Although it is not a disease in itself, specialist intervention is necessary to know the causes and establish guidelines.

Final recommendations

In short, word salad is very striking and produces a significant alteration in the person’s ability to communicate. Therefore, it is important not to ignore it and discover what its cause is.

For this, It is necessary to go to a specialist to carry out the timely evaluation, diagnose and facilitate the guidelines corresponding to each situation.

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