Interpretation Revisited

Abstract

Traditionally, analytic interpretation and the resulting insight have been regarded as providing the primary leverage for therapeutic change. Contemporary theorists ascribe increasing significance to a wide variety of nonconscious and conscious nonverbal implicit factors. In this article, I take up the interplay and relative contribution to change of explicit communication via interpretation and implicit communication from other sources. Interpretation, itself, will be considered from the standpoint of source, process, context, technique, and effect. Finally, “Why talk?” is discussed.

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Notes on contributors

Joseph D. Lichtenberg

Joseph D. Lichtenberg, M.D., is the Editor-in-Chief of Psychoanalytic Inquiry; and Founder and Director Emeritus, Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, Washington, D.C.