ABSTRACT
From the position of any psychoanalytic practice people are bound to wonder about the effectiveness of a therapy that aims to suppress or change symptoms rather than to understand them. Some communication is not deliberate and is beyond one’s own awareness. It may however convey some unrecognized intention, as in forgetting an important appointment. Similarly, it may signal the presence of conflict that one may not be aware of, as in a slip of the tongue that indicates a hostile wish one may consciously want to conceal. Much takes place in therapy that lies beyond any matter of learning strategies for coping. There is much also that lies beyond words: that is beyond what a patient is able to speak about, and beyond what a therapist is addressing with words. They need to monitor each party in the therapeutic relationship for the communication that lies beyond words.
