ABSTRACT
In the course of my psychoanalytical work with psychotic patients, some problems arose concerning the language—verbal and nonverbal communication—used both by the patient and by myself. Free associations are not limited to words and gestures; they concern also the tone of voice, pauses, and the nature or semantics of silence. And also, I would add, the significance of the overall ambience, the atmosphere of the encounter as it is experienced by patient and analyst. This atmosphere is a language in itself, a true ecology of the encounter (friendly and warm, or unfriendly and cold, etc.) in the same way as there exists an ecology in/of the mind (i.e., the atmosphere is such that one can or cannot think). All this is part of a complex cycle of facts and experiences, which can be conceived of as a “living” transference situation.
