[Analysis of verbal presentation--a problem in psychotherapy process research]

The special language mode chosen by patients to relate episodes experienced by them is a pointer to the way they cope with their own experiences. Patterns of recognition and coping are evident to the therapist from the organisation of subject matter as modelled by the patient; this supplies significant pointers to the manner in which the patient has organized his emotions and the internal interrelations of these in his mind. Analysis of "language play direction" or "language drama staging" offers a chance to the researcher to follow up the process of stabilisation or productive change going on in the patient's mind, on the basis of the coping models offered by the patients, as it were via a "miniature drama" stage-set, directed and acted by the patient.