Language in Therapy: A Door to the Unconscious*

Psychotherapy, a special way of talking, includes three constituents involved

in such talk: the therapist, the client and the unconscious. Furthermore, in this
talk, the therapist needs to interpret the languagewhat the client says in
speaking and writing through therapy, in order to unlock the clients unconscious,
since this unlocking is important to the therapeutic process. In psychology,
language interpretation is the extraction of meaning from a persons discourse in
psychotherapy. Thus, one of the objectives of psychotherapy is to extract meaning
from the unconscious to help the client psychologically. For the attainment of this
objective, language interpretation is therefore crucial, and there are three reasons.

First, the layers of meaning in the language must be uncovered. Though it is

often denied, human beings produce unconscious meanings in their discourse
things they do not want to say outright, but somehow have leaked in
communication. Language interpretation peels the possible layers of meaning for
the client to see what more has been meant in even the little that has been said.
This is reminiscent of the therapists use of the confusion technique: In a hypnotic
state, the client listens to contradictory statements, which have underlying positive
meanings.

Second, dreams must be transcribed in language. Exploring a dream begins

with the discourse concerning the dream, since language is a very helpful tool of
conveying the images evoked by the dream state. A therapist has to make
connections through meaningful associations from the discourse for the client to
gain helpful insights by realizing the things the unconscious is trying to manifest
through the dream. This realization happens when meanings of words describing
the dream are carefully interpreted. Thus, the meaningful associations based on the
dream are even more important than the dream itself.

Last, elements of the unspoken must be determined through language from

the periphery of the discourse. Part of the psychotherapy involves dealing with
traumatic events that the client experienced. In many cases, trauma causes a
person to deny certain elements of the experience, thus, pushing these to the
unconscious. These elements leak out through the periphery of the discourse, which
include the unintentional slips, the avoided topics, the verbal mistakes and the like.
Admittedly, trauma is given containment through language, thus making healing
possible. However, language can never perfectly portray reality, and human denial
can even distort this reality. Thus, it is the therapists job to interpret the traces of
the unspoken within the spoken language of the client, especially from the
periphery of the discourse.

Ultimately, language interpretation points to the mystery of human denial,

even in attempts of revealing the truth. In addition to the inadequacy of human
language to recreate reality, human beings tend to deny that which they do not
wish to acknowledge, even to themselves, thus obliging the psychotherapist to sift
through the nuances of language interpretation. Although simple in the childs
elementary use, this skill is the therapists tool of unlocking what the client may
wish to know, and yet also wish to denymaking the challenge a bit difficult
beyond description. However, for the three constituents of client, therapist and
unconscious, unlocking the door of the unconscious is the key to their destinies,
since each has a purpose to fulfill through the therapeutic process. After each has
fulfilled its role, the human soul then receives true healing.
*This essay was written by the author as a writing exercise for the application of advanced grammar principles.