Psychotherapy is commonly described as a "talking cure," a treatment method that operates through linguistic action and interaction. The operative specifics of therapeutic language use, however, are ...insufficiently understood, mainly due to a multitude of disparate approaches that advance different notions of what "talking" means and what "cure" implies in the respective context. Accordingly, a clarification of the basic theoretical structure of "talking cure models," i.e., models that describe therapeutic processes with a focus on language use, is a desideratum of language-oriented psychotherapy research. Against this background the present paper suggests a theoretical framework of analysis which distinguishes four basic components of "talking cure models": (1) a
(which suggests how linguistic activity can affect and transform human experience), (2) an
(which defines the problem or pathology of the patient), (3) a
(which defines linguistic activities that are supposed to effectuate a curative transformation of the experiential problem state), and (4) a
(which defines the processes and effects involved in such transformations). The purpose of the framework is to establish a terminological foundation that allows for systematically reconstructing basic properties and operative mechanisms of "talking cure models." To demonstrate the applicability and utility of the framework, five distinct "talking cure models" which spell out the details of curative "talking" processes in terms of (1)
, (2)
, (3)
, (4)
, and (5)
are introduced and discussed in terms of the framework components. In summary, we hope that our framework will prove useful for the objective of clarifying the theoretical underpinnings of language-oriented psychotherapy research and help to establish a more comprehensive understanding of how curative language use contributes to the process of therapeutic change.
Funktionen der Sprache in der Psychotherapie Marx, Christopher; Bildhauer, Rajana; Friedrich, Tina ...
Zeitschrift für Psychosomatische Medizin und Psychotherapie,
01/2021, Volume:
67, Issue:
1
Journal Article
What follows is an edited version of a talk delivered given at the Freud Museum in July 2017, as part of a Conference under the general title 'The Unthinkable'. With this transcription I have ...attempted - but not always succeeded - to somehow capture the spontaneity and informality of the delivery.
Human beings are speaking beings. To speak means to reach out, to relate. By speaking we partake in a world created and sustained by our discourse. And yet, we suffer as bodies. Panic attacks, morbid anxieties, addictions, -destructive behaviours, all these 'modern' types of suffering, do not but reflect the limits of our language: they delineate the realm of the unthinkable, that is, the realm of what cannot be spoken about. A small clinical vignette will be used as an illustration of what our challenge as analysts is - namely to reach beyond the statistic normativity of diagnostic manuals, and create a space to articulate the unthinkable.
While Breuer and Freud in their pioneer work Studies on hysteria chose the term catharsis for their newly developed method, Freud soon came to acknowledge the word "a central function". ...Psychoanalysis was foremost a talking cure. In the present text the author examines the function of the word and the speech in the talking cure. The text starts by discussing the function of the word from the point of view of the unconscious. The special language of the unconscious as Freud observed it in the dream work and in the symptoms of the hysterics may be described by using the tropes and figures known from classical rhetoric, the important point being that the dream, although being of visual or pictorial character has to be read as a picture-script. From here follows a discussion of the talking cure, the free associations and the evenly suspended attention with the aim of demonstrating how psychoanalysis has developed its method so as to capture the very specific language of the unconscious. The text ends up by pointing to the creative force being part of the talking cure.
Every practicing psychotherapist will have ample experience of patients expressing rage and hatred during the course of a session. In virtually all cases, patients emit their fury in a verbal form. ...But what happens when an angry, traumatized patient lacks the capacity to spit out nasty words and, instead, spits saliva? While most adult psychotherapy patients have developed a well‐internalized ability to keep their bodily fluids contained inside their bodies (with the possible exception of tears), severely and profoundly learned disabled patients can drool, vomit, urinate, defecate, ejaculate, and spit in the midst of a psychotherapy session. In view of this little‐discussed, yet not infrequent, clinical phenomenon, how can a psychotherapist function when under attack from the patient and his or her actual bodily fluids? In order to explore this aspect of disability psychotherapy, the author will discuss an eight‐year treatment with a psychotic, brain‐damaged psychogeriatric patient who spat compulsively in an aggressive manner. The author will describe the way in which he endeavoured to use classical psychoanalytical approaches in order to create an environment of safety in which the patient could begin to experience greater mental containment as well as bodily containment, and eventually arrive at a state in which her spittle could be transformed into feelings and even rudimentary words.
Artikkelen gjør en gjenvisitt til Yngvar Løchens studie av idealer og realiteter på et psykiatrisk sykehus, og fokuserer på hva som skjer når hjelpernes idealer møter realiteten på Dikemark ...asylmottak. Studien bygger på feltarbeid på mottaket der frivillige psykologer arrangerer samtalegrupper med beboere for å bedre deres psykososiale helse. Dataene består av observasjon, feltsamtaler og kvalitative dybdeintervjuer. Hjelperne starter med et terapeutisk ideal og et godhetsideal. Mange utfordringer venter når hjelpere med to tomme hender møter mennesker som har mistet alt. Rammebetingelsene på asylmottaket snevrer inn hjelpernes handlingsrom, og det terapeutiske idealet må vike for godhetsidealet. I samhandlingen må både hjelpere og beboere justere sine roller og forventninger før de finner frem til en felles definisjon av samhandlingsrelasjonen.
This article considers the ethical concerns facing media practitioners who make programmes which feature on-screen psychotherapy. Psychotherapy is conventionally regarded as a confidential activity ...involving the participation of 'vulnerable' people. These qualities combine to produce particular ethical dilemmas for practitioners who make programmes about psychotherapy. These dilemmas are explored through an analysis of the UK television documentary series Talking Cure, which follows a number of people through psychotherapeutic assessment at a well-known clinic. Although the series was considered by some within the television and psychotherapy communities to be 'groundbreaking', its critical reception exposes the ethical pitfalls facing media practitioners (and psychotherapists) who work on such programmes. In the current UK factual television landscape, particularly in light of developments within the lifestyle television genre, the participation of psychologically or emotionally vulnerable people is relatively commonplace, and the involvement of psychotherapists who deliver psychotherapeutic treatment is not unusual. This article identifies the potential risks facing media practitioners who engage in this kind of programming. While professional codes provide guidance on how to negotiate ethical dilemmas, it is the individual media practitioner who must negotiate the challenges which emerge when the rights of vulnerable programme contributors are pitched against the demands for 'good television'.
The most critical unresolved issue associated with psychoanalysis is whether its core precepts belong in today's substance use armamentarium. Psychoanalytic theories have resisted the criterion of ...falsifiability, putting them at odds with the current paradigm for treating addiction. However, Freud's earliest pronouncement on the subject, "making the patient a collaborator in his own treatment" (i.e., therapeutic alliance) not only holds up to scientific scrutiny, but is a robust determinant in improving treatment outcomes. Psychoanalytic constructs today appear as conjectures, but recognition of the primacy of the collaborative therapeutic relationship is one example of how psychoanalytic observations have influenced current research.
Whereas Thomas Bernhard's pessimistic and nihilistic Weltanschauung and his strident social criticism have received much attention, little work has been done on the narrative structures and ...strategies guiding his prose, yet these are crucial for an understanding of the thrust of Bernhard's message. In particular, the importance of role playing, and the monologic and dialogic nature of Bernhard's texts suggest a parallel with the 'talking cure' of psychoanalysis as outlined by Leo Stone in The Psychoanalytic Situation (1961). A series of analyses of Bernhard's major novels will serve to argue this parallel. By incorporating addressees within the text, and by placing his stories in the hands of multiple narrators, Bernhard creates distance from the fictional biographical and authentically autobiographical elements they contain, while nevertheless soliciting a reaction from both the interposed conversation partners and the implied readers - which appears crucial to the author.
This article analyses how Mandeville's Treatise of the hypochodriack and hysterick passions (1711) was received in the medical environment, and I show that this work, in spite of being unusual and of ...a satirical nature, was seriously read and studied by eighteenth-century physicians. In the second part I will describe hypochondria as it is intended in the Treatise, with particular attention to talking therapy. In the third part I will show that in the Fable of the bees and in the Enquiry into the origin of honour hypochondria is associated with a frustration of the desire to be esteemed, and that in light of the theory of self-liking expressed in the Fable, it is possible to account for talking therapy’s effectiveness as theorised in the Treatise.
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