ABSTRACT
The conscious system is strongly inclined towards the direct reading off of supposed implications of manifest contents without resorting to trigger decoding. Virtually all prior efforts to deal with the implications of manifest contents – whether by patients or therapists – have involved the conscious detection or formulation of the connotations. In the vignette with Ms. Gold reported in the previous chapter, the dream of her cousin touching her breast manifestly is simply the dream as stated. Inference making is the most frequent basis for defining non-manifest meaning in a patient’s material and for therapists’ interventions. Patients often disagree with the implications of manifest contents proposed by their therapists. The student’s second unconscious system encodes the unconscious implications of a self-processing teacher’s interventions, behaviours, and silences. In principle, then, the bulk of self-processing involves working with the narrative material from students as it reflects their unconscious assessment of the implications of their teacher’s interventions.
