A new psychological method named 'sensory-motor communications (SMC)' or 'allo-exploration', is described. This procedure is intended for use in psychiatrie institutions. The method is a chiefly non-verbal one and is used with severely subnormals, who can not or win not talk, and who show in an even specialised community severe disorders of conduct, which can not be explored suf ficiently by the usual tests.
The clinical psychologist enters an intersotnatic tole-playing with the patient, in which he offers him safety and possibilities for sensory and tactile contact with his body as a non-threatening and as much as possible a non-directive instrument. Alternating between a motionless, passive position and a more active state in a bed or chair or on the floor he tries, by way of many sensory-motor stimuli, to realise a relationship with the subnormal. Doing so, he nearly always is, without restaint, a usable substratum for the lying, crawling, sitting, kneeling or standing patient. The Pact, that the Jatter can experience and do as much as possible in that repeatable situation, is assisted by the spontaneous or enforced choice of various positions by the subnormal on top, over, beside or close in relation to the psychologist, as well as the alteration of optimal sensations via the skin. Only in this setting the subnormal can realize this experience as much as possible by way of his 'proximal senses'. Thus literally relating with the therapist the patient gets an optimum of affective and intellectual notions of the physical, psychical and spiritual marks of the human being.
The passive, primitive position of the psychologist in a bed or chair or on the floor in an otherwise unstimulating setting gives the patient a feeling of 'power' or of 'being-allowed-nearly-everything' or at least a notion of security and equality to the explorer. This notion allows of forces to arbitrary activity, that appears to dissolve feelings of fright, terror or checked affects or movements, and it seems to be able to moderate restlesness, aggression, destruction or selfmutilation (as two coloured films, produced by E. Hoejenbos, demonstrate). In normal society this contact and this relational sensation are largely released by the sociocultural conditions, referred to as manners.
Psychotherapeutic contacts with severely subnormals of any age, resulting from the SMC, appear to be possible and are often used with success, though a prolonged therapy is necessary. These contacts are of course not able to cure the congenital or acquired cerebral disturbances, but the results of wrong pedagogical habits exhibiting neurotic and psychotic complications can be changed into forms of integration, that may contribute to a more balanced and happier life.