Commentary on Robin Wooffitt’s Paper “Poetic Confluence: A Sociological Analysis of an Enigmatic Moment”

Abstract

The author, who is a sociologist and psychoanalyst, comments upon Wooffitt’s analysis of poetic confluence. Using conversation analysis of moments of interaction where one interlocutor says something that bears a strong resemblance to what has just been in the mind of the other interlocutor, Wooffitt suggests that this form of communication has its function in the neutralization of the mental contents of this other interlocutor. In light of material presented by Schegloff in his earlier work, this appears to be a partial function of poetic confluence but not something that is there in all instances. On a conceptual level, psychoanalysis and sociology have had several moments of rapprochement in history. Wooffitt’s plea for dialogue is different: rather than focusing on conceptual linkages between the two disciplines, he proposes meeting through empirical studies of the intersubjective and interactional basis of mental phenomena.

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Anssi Peräkylä

Anssi Peräkylä, Ph.D., is Academy Professor at the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Social Sciences. He received his PhD from the University of London in 1992. He was Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Helsinki in 1995-1998, Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Tampere in 1998-2003, Professor of Sociology at the University of Helsinki from 2003. In 2019-2023, he will be the holder of the prestigious position of Academy Professor. His books include AIDS Counselling (Cambridge University Press 2005), Conversation Analysis and Psychotherapy (co-edited, Cambridge University Press 2008) and Emotion in Interaction (co-edited, Oxford University Press 2013). Currently, he is involved in research on interactional manifestations of narcissism and personality disorders. Alongside his academic work, Peräkylä also has private practice as psychoanalyst.