Outsider Poems, a Mini-Anthology in Progress (10): Schizophrenic Definitions

[from J. Rothenberg and G. Quasha, America a Prophecy: A New Reading of American Poetry from Pre-Columbian Times to the Present, 1974]

LOGOGENESIS: Presented below are eight of ninety new words coined & defined by a “chronic schizophrenic.” Psychiatrist David V. Forrest who compiled them labelled the process of mind “poesis” & defined it by such characteristics as a tendency to concrete thinking, a use of self-created symbols “which have no consensual validation,” a logic of punning, metaphor, and “transient resemblances” to establish relations between things in the real world. Unlike related processes among “primitiives,” surrealists, etc., this poesis is said to be without a cultural context, dooming the patient (it would seem) to greater isolation & lack of communal outlet. The patient himself, “when asked at what age he began to coin words … replied: ‘Age 20, when I developed a sense of humor.’”

[ANONYMOUS]
Schizophrenic Definitions

Py’ro.im’pe.tra’tion: Firestarting. From pyro meaning fire, im meaning in, and petration, a form of rock, peter meaning rock. Fire and rocks. Grass burns in connection with rocks. Rocks can burn.

Pho’to.chro.nog’ra.phy: Study of time by light with a timepiece.

Hor’o.lo.ga’tion: Horology and separation; to keep apart in time. On April 28, 1964, I was alone with my clocks and jewelry – clocks, watches and diamond rings, sometimes pearls – watching TV, having a good time, talking with my parents, keeping away from bad company, with my clocks standing far apart, separating those that work and didn’t. All people are like clocks with a heart ticking inside.

Pho’to.sec’tion.al’i.ty: Sectioning by light, of oranges and other fruits into quarters, eights, and sixteens.

Cir’clin.gol’o.gy: Study of a rolling circle. A fruit can in the form of a cylinder rolling. Rollers of presses.

Ster’e.o.trans.la’tion: Solid change of language, solid changing of interpretation, word of overidolization. The most cherished word of English. Respected, cherished, lovable words, solid, hard. Solid understanding. Cherishing, begetting. One word begets another, with a similar meaning and opposite.

Os’te.o.pho’to.car’di.ol’o.gy: Bones, lights and hearts. Bones to begin with. Light in the form of scintillation, illuminating, lighting up. One of the most brilliant words, because of “photo.” Like superillumination.

Sem’i.cen’ti.os’te.o.pho’to.seis’mo.phys’i.o.ple’o.pol’y.com’pu.ta’tion: The longest word, having 50 letters. The act of boning up to count up to 50, a counting done by light, on earth, by nature (from natural resources), more than 25, many.