Some remarks on the role of speech in psycho-analytic technique 1

Abstract

Freud's original formulation of the aim of psychoanalytic therapy—to lift amnesias—was sufficient as long as only the undoing of the effects of repression was considered. But since psychoanalysis came to consider the results of other defensive mechanisms as well, the need has also arisen to encompass such processes as the re-establishment of connexions, for instance, and the correction of distortions produced by various mechanisms of defence. The analytic setup, the fundamental rule and the role of the analyst make it unique. In the analytic situation authors might expect the patient's speech to be mainly confined to the expressive function and to that facet of the function of representation which deals mostly with the description of events. In psychoanalytic practice, authors often encounter considerable resistances in patients to verbalizing certain thoughts and emotions of which they have always been perfectly aware. A particular problem in analytic therapy centres around the verbalization of emotions and affects in the transference situation.

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