Ethnosemantic Analysis of Cognition in the Alcoholic Patient

Abstract

Ethnosemantic analysis, a research method developed by structural anthropologists and linguists for studying “alien” cognitive domains, would be a useful tool for therapists who treat the alcoholic patient. In this paper a method is developed that would enable a therapist to focus upon aspects of the alcoholic patient's cognitions that are operative in the patient's drinking behavior. Three sorts of objectively derived information are obtained: (1) a list of cognitive factors that threaten the patient's self-concept, (2) a taxonomic sorting of these factors, and (3) a measure of the differential stressfulness of these factors to the patient. All three of these information outputs are semantically produced by the patients themselves.