Don't Teach Till You See the Direction of Their Eye Movements
first obtaining his visual attention, and if you observe his eyes for movement, you will note that he makes a lateral eye movement to the left or to the right. He appears to break eye contact momentarily as he thinks to answer your question. On repeated observations, you will see that the movement is reliable in direction and characteristic of the individual, who may as a consequence be classified as a right or left mover. The writer first observed arid reported this behavior while serving on Don't Teach See the a treatment team which developed a Direction of Their Eye Movements resocia~ization program for MERLE E. DAY, Ph.D. Veterans Administration Hosuital schizophrenics (Mental Hospitals, OcDowney, lllinois tober 1963). In general, a patient's attentional processes were firmly fixed on his own needs, thoughts, and purposes. Patients seemedunable to shift their attention from themselves. As a result, the qualityof their interpersonal verbal communications was highly self-referential and narcissistic. At first, I made the simple observation that phrases which communicate a willingness to explore the other person's feelings and thoughts-such as, "What made you feel that way?" or "What do you mean?"-were blatantly absent from the speech of patients, though they were very prominent in the speech of staff and therapists. These ideas spurred the search for some observable indication of shifting attention, and the eye movement behavior was discovered (Day, 1964).l The eye movement's extent and direction was observed to be related to types and levels of anxiety. Mental patients often do not show this behavior, especially when they are