A specific language battery has been built up in order to assess verbal aut
omatisms in old aphasic patients, in patients with dementia of the Alzheime
r type, in Parkinsonians as well as in long-term hospitalized elderly subje
cts. Even though the protocol has indeed some imperfections, it yielded dat
a and results that are no longer compatible with the notion of "automatic/v
oluntary dissociation" such as advocated by Jackson, Baillarger and Alajoua
nine. It finally seems that cognitive psychology leads to a new type of int
erpretation.