ABSTRACT
Communicative-adaptive studies have shown that clinical material alone—even when it is based on sequential process notes that reflect the patient’s free associations and the therapist’s interventions—is not sufficient data on which to base a valid and comprehensive, fully explanatory picture of the therapeutic experience. While Sigmund Freud’s overriding focus on the workings of the mind of the patient had brought with it an array of insights, this concentration also served as a way of precluding a full and sensitive picture of the nature of the therapeutic interaction. The human mind seems to be designed in some way to be blind to vital aspects of human emotional experience and communication. Thus, even though we are for the moment only speculating, we can nevertheless sense something of the truly unprecedented ways of thinking that characterize the strong adaptive position.
