ABSTRACT
Attachment to words may represent attachment to a group, perhaps one that is considered to have a psychoanalytic expertise. The use of psychoanalytic concepts as distinguished from the use of psychoanalytic terms represents a considerable advance. The dependence of empathy on an emotional-cognitive capacity to receive, interpret, and convey to others an interpretation of emotional communication suggests that neither the use of the term nor the cognitive understanding of the concept is enough to establish that the internalization of the idea has taken place. The psychoanalytic method can be especially powerful in the effort to overcome taboos about thinking and speaking, including taboos about empathy for designated enemies and about understanding the sometimes damaging consequences of identification with designated allies. Both psychoanalytic interpretation and statistical analysis are methods designed to free the individual from his or her attachment to a set of prior assumptions about the world established in an essentially subjective way.
