A number of studies have demonstrated pragmatic language difficulties in people with Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders. However, research about how people with schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders understand scalar implicatures is surprisingly rare, since SIs have generated much of the most recent literature. Scalar implicatures are pragmatic inferences, based on linguistic expressions like some, must, or, which are part of a scale of informativeness. Logically, the less informative expressions imply the more informative ones, but pragmatically people usually (...) infer that the presence of a less informative term implies that the more informative term was not applicable. In one of the few existing studies with people with schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders, Wampers et al. observed that in general, people with schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders were less likely to derive SIs than controls. The current study has three main aims. First, we want to replicate the original finding with the scalar terms some-all. Second, we want to investigate how these patients deal with different scalar terms, that is, we want to investigate if scalar diversity is also observed in this clinical group. Third, we investigate the role of working memory, often seen as another important mechanism to enable inferring SIs. Twenty-one individuals with a psychotic disorder and 21 matched controls answered 54 under-informative statements, in which seven different pairs of scalar terms were used. In addition, working memory capacity was measured. Patients with schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders did not make more logical interpretations when processing quantifiers, disconfirming Wampers et al.. However, certain scalar scales elicited more pragmatic interpretations than others, which is in line with the scalar diversity hypothesis. Additionally, we observed only partial evidence for the role of working memory. Only for the scalar scale and-or, a significant effect of working memory was observed. The implications of these results for patients with schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders are discussed, but also the role of working memory for pragmatic inferences, as well as the place of SIs in experimental pragmatics. (shrink)

Belgium is one of very few countries where euthanasia on the basis of psychiatric illness is legally possible. Three physicians involved in the euthanasia of a 38-year-old woman suffering from psychiatric illness recently faced a criminal trial for “murder by poisoning”, for allegedly having failed to comply with several requirements of the Belgian Euthanasia Law. Although none of the physicians were convicted, the case generated extensive debate, in the media and the general public as well as in the medical profession (...) and among policy makers. In this chapter, we take this trial as the starting point for a critical analysis of the clinical-psychiatric, ethical, and legal issues involved in evaluating euthanasia requests in cases of complex psychiatric disorders. In these cases, the requirements of the Belgian Euthanasia Law could be improved by mandating the advice of two psychiatrists, who are experts in the treatment of the specific condition of the person requesting euthanasia. Simultaneously with the process of evaluating the euthanasia request, there should be a parallel treatment track in which all therapeutic and recovery-oriented options are explored. These two tracks should not be in the hands of the same physician. (shrink)