Applying The Conversational Analysis Strategies To Psychoanalytic Process Research. Rhythm And Blues: 152nd Session With Amalia (Part 1)

Studies of the psychotherapeutic process using the methods of conversation analysis can make a substantial contribution to further development of psychotherapeutic practice. The case study of Amalia, particularly session 152, has been analysed many times using different methods that are briefly reviewed here. This paper is devoted to the analysis of session 152, based on the new transcription material that includes the prosodic elements of the dialogue in the analytical dyad. Our study demonstrates the following: (a) how the analyst and the patient together create a common object of conversation, i.e. psychoanalysis; (b) the use of different therapeutic tools that have not been properly covered in literature yet and may be described as ‘devices’. We define our work as a qualitative study based on the non-statistical data of the verbal production analysis whose results may be used for advancing new hypotheses.

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