On the clinical relevance of selected postmodern ideas with a focus on Lyotard's concept of "differend"

Clinical differends are collisions of language-games in which people become baffled as to the other's meaning. This confusion creates anxiety and speechlessness, which disables their linguistic creativity to communicate effectively. In order to dispell this confusion, one needs to acquire the ability to negotiate a mutual set of rules for local conversation and to navigate these local local definitions without offending. Psychoanalysis can promote this flexibility by relying on the common-sense tactic of asking people what they mean by the words they use, by exploring their meaning in some depth, and by negotiating a nonoffensive local and provisional language with the patient that allows the patient to create a vocabulary for saying what needs to be said.