ON THE RELATION OF REFERENTIAL ACTIVITY A ND THE VERBAL EXPRESSION EMOTIONS IN PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC INTERVIEWS

The ''Dual Code Theory'' of Paivio and Bucci's concept of ''Referentia l Activity'' refer to the different modes of mental representation. Si milarity with Freud's notion of primary and secondary process as well as clinical implications led to an empirical study of these cognitive approaches with german transcripts. Bucci's hypotheses as to the relat ion of ''Referential activity'' to the primary process as well as to t he therapeutic work on emotions were investigated my means of the ''Re gressive Imagery Dictionary'' (ro assess primary and secondary process content) and the ''Affective Dictionary Ulm'' (to assess the affectiv e vocabulary). The study of 50 initial psychotherapeutic interviews yi elded significant results.