The Talking Cure: Wittgenstein on Language as Bewitchment and Clarity

One of Freud's central claims is that our words and actions reveal unrecognised confusions lying at the heart of our relationships with others and the world. Taking Freud at his word and sharing his view of the importance of the 'talking cure', this book demonstrates how the language of Freud and his followers is often so confused as to be therapeutically useless.

Drawing primarily on the work of Wittgenstein, John Heaton offers a radically different understanding of the 'talking cure' which engages with the problem of language itself, and its capacity to bewitch both patient and therapist. This book shows that the generally assumed correspondence between objects and words is not justified and is associated with an obsolete physics and mathematics. It also reveals that first–person language does not imply a substantial ego or a private subjectivity as is assumed by most psychotherapists. This holds great importance for therapists of all persuasions who try to make sense of what happens when people meet to unravel the expression of suffering which is framed within words that may ensnare.

This paperback version comes with a new preface from the author and provides an essential source for understanding psychotherapy.