Warning: The NCBI web site requires JavaScript to function. more...
Generate a file for use with external citation management software.
Psychotherapy, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. g.lepper@kent.ac.uk
The research reported in this article aims to demonstrate a method for the systematic study of the therapist/patient interaction in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, drawing upon the tradition and methods of 'pragmatics'--the study of language in interaction. A brief introduction to the discipline of pragmatics demonstrates its relevance to the contemporary focus of clinical theory on the here-and-now dynamics of the relationship between analyst and patient. This is followed by a detailed study of five segments from the transcript of a therapeutic dialogue, drawn from a brief psychoanalytic psychotherapy, in which therapist and patient negotiate the meaning of the patient's symptom: Is it psychosomatic? The research seeks to show how the therapeutic process can be observed and studied as an interactional achievement, grounded in general and well-studied procedures through which meaning is intersubjectively developed and shared. Implications of the analysis for clinical theory and practice, and further research, are discussed.
Your browsing activity is empty.
Activity recording is turned off.
Turn recording back on