The pragmatics of therapeutic interaction: an empirical study.
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.
Lepper
Georgia
G
Psychotherapy, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. g.lepper@kent.ac.uk
D003142:Communication; D036262:Empirical Research; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D014167:Transference, Psychology