The language of absence

This paper will focus on the concept of 'absence', which describes a continuum of non-responsiveness and misattunement of the environment in the stage of absolute dependence; it refers to concepts like lack, failure, non-recognition, impingement, neglect, tantalizing, ranging to mental, physical and sexual abuse. An extreme external absence causes shock and fear. The automatic survival response is an inner absence, an intrapsychic absence, a dissociation of parts of the self. The external and the inner absence are the negative image of each other. The concept of absence points to the synchronicity of outer and inner reality and portrays the non-responded-to needs of the self. This point of view of the development of psychopathology of the self on the basis of massive dissociation is inherently an intersubjective-field-theory. As the inner absence is created as a reaction to an absence of the other, in analysis - the analyst has an active role in reviving it. This paper will explore the language of absence, that is, the derivatives and consequences of these situations in the inner realm, and in the relations with the analyst. It is the author's contention that understanding and speaking this language has important clinical and technical implications. Understanding the language of absence enables the analyst to recognize its intersubjective and its intrapsychic presence, to provide an environment that allows for its revival, and to facilitate and regulate the annihilation anxiety that awakens when dissociated self-states are experienced. When the absence is present, i.e. when the traumatic experience and the dissociated reactions to it are experienced in an attuned relationship, it is rendered with meaning, symbolization, and validation, and enables the survival mode of dissociation to be relinquished.     

The topology of language

Based on ideas from information theory, in particular the method of arithmetic coding, we describe a metric on sets of strings. In fact, these spaces correspond exactly with compact ultrametric spaces, and we explore their properties in detail. In particular, we look at contraction mappings in these spaces, as they are of fundamental importance in building fractals. We introduce a connection between fractal geometry and formal language theory. There are a number of parallels that can be drawn between the operations that are carried out on fractals and those that occur in formal language theory, and this leads to speculation about how deep the connection goes.     

The language of suicidology

This 2005 Louis I. Dublin Award Address explores some of the basic difficulties and controversies inherent in the development and universal acceptance of a nomenclature for suicidology. Highlighted are some of the unresolved challenges with agreeing upon a mutually exclusive set of terms to describe suicidal thoughts, intentions, motivations, and self-destructive behaviors.     

The language of spirituality

By exploring the evidence brought forward by palaeontologists and archaeologists, this paper will investigate the hypothesis that spirituality is rooted in our primordial origins. It will be claimed that as a fundamental human dimension that distinguishes humans, spirituality needs to interact with the other constituent dimensions that make us human, including our need for community, our characteristics of learning, of being rational and of developing tools that change us. If spirituality emerged so early in the evolutionary process, and if it is tied to the quest of search for meaning, one could put forward an argument that it precedes most of the tools and knowledges developed by humans. There seems to be evidence that its ability to spur human development is mainly done through the development and use of symbols which, if understood in a wider sense, seem to be the primary language of spirituality.     

The language of feelings

The acquisition of a language of feelings is similar to the acquisition of other language and can be conceptualized within a Piagetian framework. The acquisition of this language of feelings is subject to certain pitfalls that are reflective of various emotional problems. The linguistic poverty for affect that is concomitant with being unable to label feelings points to the need for parents and therapists to be involved in helping the child or patient develop an affective schema. The development of a differentiated, accurate, and flexible language of emotion to both express personal feelings and evoke responses in others is a schematic gift which parents provide. We find that when parents have not provided this, a reparative language developmental task is part of a psychotherapy. A grasp of the interplay of the concepts ofassimilation andaccommodation in Piaget (1952) appears essential to encouraging a healthy language of feelings. Related concepts drawn from Schacter (1965), Laing (1967), Krystal (1979), Kelly (1955) and Malerstein and Ahern (1979) are interwoven in a Piagetian structure for a language of feelings.     

The language of pain

The expression ‘pain’ refers to a phenomenon intrinsic to individuals. The object of the language of pain is restricted to an individual experience which excludes any form of direct access by others. Speaking about pain is thus one of the most difficult forms of linguistic activities, as has been repeatedly pointed out by Wittgenstein. The difficulties involved in this type of communication are not only dependent upon individual linguistic ability but are also clearly reflected in the state and structure of the linguistic means which are at the disposal of the speakers of a language. Linguistic means vary in status and complexity with respect to the ends which they can be used for. In this paper, I discuss two aspects of communicating pain: types of expression which are involved in speaking about pain, and linguistic activities which are carried out when speaking about pain. The two aspects are interrelated. My analysis makes use of categories belonging to the theory of linguistic activity and to the extended field theory of language (an expansion of Bühler's concept of symbolic and deictic field analysis of language).