A Psychiatric Interview

This chapter proposes to enter the emotional/relational world by microanalyzing the details of dialogue. It describes a model of attunement, the state of the social bond, the process through which interactants in the interview fail to achieve joint attention and feeling. The chapter illustrates the model with findings from recent research, and with a concrete episode of social interaction. Effective communication implies a social structure shared between the interactants. Insofar as interaction takes place in an open domain such as natural language, and insofar as the interactants are experts in that domain, then each exchange depends upon and helps maintain the social structure. Paradoxically, understanding social structure involves examination of the minute events in the microworld. The chapter suggests that the emotional/relational world, usually invisible, can be made visible, if we plays close enough attention to the details of discourse. It suggests that the discourse in a profound alienation between a patient and a psychiatrist.

Psychiatry · Bipolar Disorder and Treatment · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Personality Disorders and Psychopathology · Psychology