Editorial: When Words (nearly) Fail Us

Joe Goodbread

Language intrigues us by promising to clarify the obscurely paradoxical world of human experience. Because of its power to explicitly communicate emotions, thoughts, and a broad range of less easily categorized experience, language is the obvious medium for the practice of psychotherapy. Whether we remember Sigmund Freud practicing his “talking cure” in 19th century Vienna, or watch the television mafioso Tony Soprano unburdening his heavy conscience by talking to his psychiatrist, we are reminded not only of the potential of the word to heal us, but of its ultimate inadequacy to completely express the depth and complexity of the human spirit. Read more ›