[Changes in vocabulary in a psychoanalytic process]

This paper at first deals with some aspects of the relationship between psychoanalysis and linguistics. Freuds theory of parapraxis is interpreted in terms of Bühlers model of speech, whereby the entire verbal output of a speaker can be understood as an act of symptomatic behavior. The investigation of the vocabulary of nouns of a patient suffering from anxiety neurosis illustrates the fertility of this model. The frequency dispersion of all nouns taken from a specific sample of the patient's and analyst's speaking shows the stability of statistical properties of speech behavior. Following, the role of content-analytic techniques for the specific demands of research in pstchotherapy is discussed. A large part of content-analytic measures is rather far removed from the clinical description of the psychotherapeutic process, thus diminishing the validating relevance of these studies for psychoanalytic concepts. The final chapter describes the process of a psychoanalytic treatment by means of the content-analytic technique. The changes of the patient's verbal content show highly specific correlation to the clinical ratings of psychoanalytic concepts like transference and anxiety. As an initial study, these results are qualified to stimulate the development of content-analytic categories for research in psychotherapy.