Gender & language in therapeutic discourse

This paper presents an integration and a synthesis of ideas surrounding the use of gender in everyday language. The original source material emerges from a psychotherapy session, with a transcription of a small segment of the therapeutic discourse. This segment of discourse is analysed in detail in the final sector of the paper, following a presentation of the theoretical constructs, and their origins, along with an argument for how these constructs inform the analysis of the therapeutic discourse. The concepts of post-structuralism, construction of self, psychotherapy and self, existentialism, phenomenology, and an array of literary sources are amongst the theoretical constructs which inform this paper. The theoretical constructs focus upon the use of group inclusion or exclusion, as a psychological and linguistic process, in the negotiation of social process and interpersonal activity. The analysis explores, in particular, the use of personal pronouns in speech, and lends support to the notion that gender is but one of a whole range of possible self-attribute constructs which are employed in speech to contend with the commonplace dilemmas inherent in discourse and social process generally. The text is presented as an instance of discourse in itself, as an on-the-spot, or 'in vivo' illustration of social process. The paper contains preliminary theoretical material regarding the construction of the experience of time within discourse; an expansion of this material is to follow in a subsequent study. The study has application for a number of professional settings, both for those employed in the helping professions and for trainees in the same fields