Why the speech cures, is still the major enigma of psychotherapies. For deepen in its comprehension, we must go further than the logic-semantic approach of discourse -which states that the key would rely on the production of sense and meaning- introducing a pragmatic standpoint to understand the speech like an act. This paper starts with a critical analysis of "Symbolic Efficacy", showing its advantages and its drawbacks. Afterwards, the question of efficacy is reformulated from the psychoanalytical framework, and some contributions from analytical philosophy. It is concluded that therapeutic dialog's efficacy comes from the literality of the discourse and not from its secondary meanings. Nevertheless, this efficacy needs the emerging from the dialog "meaning promises", never plentifully achieved.
García, M. (2011). Toward a pragmatic and psychoanalytical theory on the healing properties of words. The speech literality and the symbolic efficacy in the metaphor. Revista De Psicología, 20(1), Pág. 103–126. https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-0581.2011.13728
Twitter