The paper is devoted to the specific verbal behavior of people with psychiatric disorders and representation in language and discourse of inner emotional states. The neurological and psychiatric disorders often are manifested in verbal form. The material of the paper is taken frоm films featuring discourse with patients of psychiatric wards, mostly American. The materials not only shed light upon specific characteristic of verbal behavior in the group under study- which is rather important for research linking personality and speech and diagnostics of certain traits of character and psychic states. This material is also illustrative of models of expressiveness of descriptions of different psychic states in different cultures. The research of specific characteristics of communication in the group under study – self-description, communication with relatives and environment and society on the whole help create inclusivity and friendly atmosphere of dialogue.
speech; speech and psychic pathology; linguistic diagnostics; lan- guage of description of emotional states; alexithymia; psychiatric discourse.