Some principles of correlating verbal and non-verbal communication

Abstract

In an exploratory associative interview I try to find out how bodily nonverbal expressions are related to the personality and the emotional condition of the patient, because such a correlation may add to the understanding of our entire therapeutic approach to patients in general. The object of psychotherapy is to ease the inner conflicts of the patient and to strengthen his ego—to help him adjust to life better with fewer defenses to the reality in which he lives. I approach him not only as he presents himself as an adult with his struggles, but as he has been in the past, and as he has developed. I try to take him back into the past where his conflicts originated and developed. In recalling them he can then use them for a confrontation with himself as an adult, see himself in another light, and attempt to resolve his conflicts consciously and maturely.