The Process of Constructing the Self and Its Relation to Psychotherapy

By adulthood, humans become able to choose which aspects of self to display, to reflect about themselves and their behavior from multiple perspectives, and to imagine and prepare for possible, but not-yetexperienced, circumstances (cf. moviola technique; Guidano, 1991). Although linguistic representations become increasingly complex and important for the organization of behavior, they do not replace the earlier sensory-based representations. Indeed, procedural and imaged representations elicit behavior more rapidly under threatening conditions throughout the life-span. For example, a recurrence of the smells, sounds, or sights associated with past danger can immediately elicit self-protective responses that operate outside of conscious awareness. Because speed is most critical when one feels threatened, less conscious, sensory-based representations may be of greater importance to individuals who have experienced actual threat or who frequently feel themselves to be threatened than to less threatened individuals. For the psychotherapist, this implies the importance of attending to non-verbal functioning and of transforming it into verbally accessible forms of self that are available for self-reflective consideration (Fonagy & Target, 1997). Once humans have the maturational potential for conscious, sophisticated, and self-aware thought, an intentional course of self change becomes possible for the first time. The paradox, however, is that language is the most easily distorted and falsified form of communication whereas linguistically structured self reflection is the most accessible means of identifying and correcting distortions. Assessment of the non-conscious aspects of linguistic communications (such as the discourse analysis of the Adult Attachment Interview) can alert the informed listener to distorted linguistic processes and provide a means to bypass the persuasive distortions of language (Crittenden, 1999, 2000).