[On the dynamics of psychological functioning through speech analysing]. / Dynamique d'un fonctionnement psychologique à travers l'étude de l'énonciation.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to focus on the clinical aspects of four linguistic indicators that emerge from automatic speech analysis. BACKGROUND: From a theoretical point of view, the number of proposals deals with cognitive activity, the number of modelizations with emotional activity, the number of connections with judgment activity and the number of action verbs can refer to behavioral activity. METHODS: To test these hypotheses we have studied two protocols of Thematic Aperception Test (TAT) randomized from non-clinical groups for the former and from a group of schizophrenic patients for the latter. RESULTS: The outcomes regarding the non-clinical protocols lead to the conclusion that the four indicators are coherent (α=0.93) and correlated; this confirms the clinical data on the cohesive personality of this young lady. The absence of correlations within the schizophrenic protocols reflects the dissociative syndrome of this patient. CONCLUSION: Finally, the study of the dynamics of this protocol, using our four linguistic criteria, confirms both the affective indifference and the increase of behavioral activity of this patient when the mentalization fails. After discussion and despite its capacity to describe clinical cases, the validity of this method needs to be completed (by relating the language indicators to production time stories) in further explorations, even if its reliability is good (α=0.93).

[Defense mechanisms and perceived adverse effects in a population of 70 HIV infected adults]. / Styles défensifs et perception des effets indésirables dans une population de 70 adultes séropositifs au VIH.

OBJECTIVE: We assessed the relations between defense mechanisms and perceived adverse effects of ART in a population of 70 HIV positive patients. DESIGN: The Bond Defense Style questionnaire was used to evaluate defense mechanisms. We used Justice's questionnaire to assess adverse effects and their psychological impact. We carried out multiple regression and mediation analyses to define the relations between the number of adverse effects, defensive styles, and the impact of adverse effects. RESULTS: The global model accounts for nearly 40 % of the score variance. Mature and immature defense styles bring significant contribution to understanding the impact of adverse effects, even when their number is controlled. CONCLUSION: Working on defense mechanisms should lower the psychological impact of adverse effects, therefore, improving the patient's quality of life and compliance.