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From: Per Ladegaard, Oslo, Norway
Date: 18 Sep 1997
Time: 07:21:14
Bob Stolorow writes that interpretations are always suggestions. I would like to add that suggestions are always interpretations, or rather are based on interpretations. It is not very helpful to dress an authoritarian interpretation up as a suggestion simply by adding the prefix "could it be that...". I do not subscribe to the politically correct notion that a new name will alter our concept of a phenomenon. Thus chosing the term suggestion for a phenomenon that is in fact a rather complex product of our subjective organizing principles may lead to a less than significant change in our therapeutic interventions. May I suggest (no pun intended) that we stick with the term interpretation, and instead concentrate on how to contribute to an intersubjective field in which the patient feels truly free to question our interpretations without fear of sanctions, and is made to experience that his objections are empatically met. This should be our focus, rather than weather or not our interpretations end with a question mark
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