Where Words Trap the Mind: The Bewitchment of Psychotherapy

Abstract

When psychotherapists reify the concepts they are using to describe human experiences, both therapist and patient are likely to end up with befuddled thinking, and become unable to grasp the lived experience of the emotional turmoil the patient is struggling with. In this context, proper use of language is of vital importance, and the first task of the psychotherapist is to think clearly about the words she uses. This essay attempts to clarify some of these issues, and to discuss their relevance to the practice of psychotherapy.

What is <em>therapeutic</em>? Analysis of the narratives available on Italian Addiction Rehab Centres’ Sites to present the therapeutic programme

“…There are also works that propose innovative methods of intervention with respect to the risk of falling within the tracks marked by the processes of reification (Harrè & Tissaw, 2005 ; Romaioli & Faccio, 2012 ). Li offers an impressive example of the risk of using metaphors in psychotherapy, which may reify the experience of the patient within the conceptual framework of the therapist without revealing their conventional origin: “language is fundamentally metaphorical – more often than not, words are used to achieve a purpose rather than pointing to things” (Li, 2018 ). Wittgenstein’s proposal is valuable because he writes “the meaning of an experience is in its living.” The crux of the matter is that meaning cannot be captured, framed, or pinned down once and for all.…”

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“…The understanding of mindfulness as an experiential me--in--the--world perspective is rarely commented on; this aspect of mindfulness has, in my view, a strong affinity with the philosophical tradition of phenomenology in terms of the concept of intentionality.22 Of course the notion of the "mind" is a contested one. I am using it as shorthand for how we experience phenomenal subjectivity (the sense of "I") (SeeLi, 2018).…”