ABSTRACT
Georg Groddeck examines how our use of language relates to the deepest meaning of the self, referring specifically to the distortions created by one's lack of understanding of his or her inner life. As Groddeck suggested in his discussion of the word "I", much of our confusion when it comes to language and communication reflects the misperceptions of inner life, in particular the acquired self, which functions as a mask for the truth. The perspective of creative work might help in distinguishing between words spoken in a state of authentic existence and those detached from the self and so from reality. Words, as they are used in poetry, are often functions of the Language of Achievement. The words of the Language of Achievement might be compared to a forty-ton whale suddenly in flight as it breaches the water, giving those words a sense of great weight and meaning which is simultaneous with a sense of weightlessness.
