Who Am I to You? Using Function Words as a Measure of Transference

There is a gap in our understanding of transference resolution as an aspect of therapeutic process and its relation to observable changes in language. My hypotheses can contribute to this area by identifying whether there are detectible changes in pronoun use in a psychoanalysis that are related to the resolution of transference. Data: The de-identified transcripts of a young agoraphobic housewife in a four time a week then two time a week psychoanalysis from the 1970s. Method: The Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software will be used to measure structural changes in language that may reflect intrapsychic changes in the speech patterns of a psychoanalytic patient. First, I will attempt to measure if there are changes in the patient’s flexible use of language. I will next verify that the patient’s self-reference as measured by pronoun use changes. Then other linguistic behavior associated with pronoun change will be identified. Finally, I will qualitatively explore if there is a relationship between proposed language change and transference. Findings: Self-reference in terms of LIWC “I” use showed major change from High I use in the first half of the analysis when compared to the second half. LIWC language categories found to be associated with High I sessions were high affect, high “you,” high negation, high present and future tense, high verbs, and low “we,” low conjunctions, and low prepositions. Low I sessions tended to have high “we” scores, high “they” scores, high conjunctions, and low “you” scores, and low negation scores. When compared, the major differences between High I and Low I sessions was found in the difference in pronoun use, where Low I sessions tended to be high “we/they” sessions and High I sessions tended to be high “you” sessions. For the qualitative analysis, sessions with High “I/you” scores tended to be interpreted as transference by the analyst, while high “we/they” scores tended to be interpreted by the analyst or patient as identification. Key Words: psychoanalysis, transference, LIWC, pronouns, functions words, self-reference, textual analysis, therapy process researc

The politics and aesthetics of commemoration: national days in southern Africa

The contributions to the special section in this issue study recent independence celebrations and other national days in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of Congo. They explore the role of national days in state-making and nation-building, and examine the performativity of nationalism and the role of performances in national festivities. Placing the case studies in a broader, comparative perspective, the introduction first discusses the role of the state in national celebrations, highlighting three themes: firstly, the political power-play and contested politics of memory involved in the creation of a country’s festive calendar; secondly, the relationship between state control of national days and civic or popular participation or contestation; and thirdly, the complex relationship between regional and ethnic loyalties and national identifications. It then turns to the role of performance and aesthetics in the making of nations in general, and in national celebrations in particular. Finally, we look at the different formats and meanings of national days in the region and address the question whether there is anything specific about national days in southern Africa as compared to other parts of the continent or national celebrations world-wide.Web of Scienc