Notes on the Linguistic Register

A psychoanalytic perspective on boundaries

Abstract

There has been much research on fee, time, and other components of the analytic boundaries and the meaning associated with each over the past century. While psychoanalytic schools of thought are at variance about the conditions applied to each of the tents of the therapeutic boundary, they all agree those exist. Meanwhile, the linguistic register and the role it plays as a form of boundary in talk therapy has received less notice. This essay shows that the linguistic register is a boundary. Using Fairbairn’s theory of endopsychic personality structure which accounts for outer experiences and inner distortions by the individual, this essay helps understand and interpret the patient’s choice of linguistic register as a boundary component potentially pregnant with rich insight into the transference dynamic. This could help the clinician make a more informed diagnosis.