Towards a semiotic psychotherapy - Semiotic objects and semiotic selves

The focus of the following article is on the generation of meanings that fo und the self in the context of psychotherapeutic exchanges. We want to outl ine the domain of semiosis as a proliferating, polysemic realm of meaning. We hope to suggest through this outline that clinical frames of reference, as well as everyday aspects of our language exchanges, are susceptible to a n essentially shifting nature of meaning. As a result, what we take as defi nitive characteristics of classic diagnostic lexical items are also subject to the uncertainty of semiosis. And, finally, the construct psychology app lies to the individual-a self-is best viewed as a semiotic object susceptib le to the promiscuous nature of semiosis. When a practice such as psychothe rapy takes the self as its object, and utilizes certain clinical frames of reference as its basis, practitioners should be aware of the shifting and l abile ground upon which its constructs are erected. Semiotic analysis and i ts subsequent category of linguistic analysis can thus offer a ground for a theory of psychotherapy.