The Languages of Psychoanalysis

John E. Gedo

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781134889778
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Applied Psychology
• Index: Psychology

In this remarkable survey of "the communicative repertory of humans," John Gedo demonstrates the central importance to theory and therapeutics of the communication of information. He begins by surveying those modes of communication encountered in psychoanalysis that go beyond the lexical meaning of verbal dialogue, including "the music of speech," various protolinguistic phenomena, and the language of the body. Then, turning to the analytic dialogue, Gedo explores the implications of these alternative modes of communication for psychoanalytic technique. Individual chapters focus, in turn, on the creation of a "shared language" between analyst and analysand, the consequences of the analytic setting, the form in which the analyst casts particular interventions, the curative limits of empathy, the analyst's affectivity and its communication to the patient, and the semiotic significance of countertransference and projective identification.

Gedo does not proffer semiotics as a substitute for metapsychology. He is explicit that communicative skill is always dependdent on somatic events within the central nervous system. Indeed, it is because Gedo's hierarchical approach to communication builds on our current understanding of a hierarchically organized central nervous system that his clincal observations become insights into basic psychobiological functioning. Grounded in Gedo's four decades of clinical experience, The Languages of Psychoanalysis points to a new venue of clinical research and conceptualization, one in which attentiveness to issues of communication will not only foster linkages with contemporary neuroscience, but also clarify and enlarge the therapeutic possibilities of psychoanalytic treatment.

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Index

A

Abandonment, perceived, 17

Abraham, K., 48, 136, 181, 182

Acting out, 121

Activity, repetition of patterns of, 173

Adaptation, 94, l40n, 152, 170, 178

Adaptive changes, 138

Adaptive emergencies, 152

Advice, analyst's providing, 106

Affect(s), 172

infant communication through, 47

inner experience and, 80

isolation of, 8

language of, 13

memories of, 172

motor activities of, 36

painful, 175

paraverbal indications of, 14

recognition of, 165

inability in, 147

somatic concomitants of, xii

vocalization of, 78

Affective conditions, 23

Affective experience, 173

Affective patterns, 173

Affective reactions, 33

Affective state, 79

preference for, 172

Affective tones of speech, 90

Affectomotor actions, 121

After-education, 144

Aggression, 164, 166, 168

Alexander, F., 27, 28, 62, 97, 115, 181

concept of corrective emotional experience, 62

Alexithymia, 8

Ambiance

analytic, 109

empathic, 59, 62–63, 116–117

therapeutic, 59

Analysand

associations, 11

male, 107

nonverbal communications of, 118, See also Nonverbal communication

provocative behavior of, 107

psychoanalytically obtuse, 140

psychobiology of, 144

reaction to treatment, 102

regression of, 22–23, See also Regression

response of, 140

semiotic codes used by, 15

sexual power of, 107

speech production, tempo of, 23

state of mind, 37

subjective experience of, 117

communication of, 118

subjective viewpoint of, 81, 102, 103n

temporary identification with, 154

verbal skills o...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• Introduction
• I: Psychoanalysis and Semiotics
• II: On the Analytic Dialogue
• III: Intrapsychic Communication
• Epilogue
• References
• Index