Dissociation, Relatedness, and ‘Cohesive Harmony’

A linguistic measure of degrees of ‘fragmentation’?

Authors

  • David Grimston Butt Centre for Language in Social Life, Macquarie University, Australia
  • Alison Rotha Moore Language Centre, University of Wollongong and Centre for Language in Social Life, Macquarie University, Australia
  • Caroline Henderson-Brooks Centre for Language in Social Life, Macquarie University, Australia
  • Joan Haliburn Centre for Psychiatric Research, Westmead Millennium Institute, Westmead Hospital & Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Sydney, Australia
  • Russell Meares Centre for Psychiatric Research, Westmead Millennium Institute, Westmead Hospital & Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Sydney, Australia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/lhs.v3i3.263

Keywords:

Psychotherapy, Conversational Model, Dissociation, Mind, Discourse Analysis, Cohesion, Cohesive Harmony, Systemic Functional Linguistics

Abstract

While cohesive devices do not in themselves, or in their aggregate, correspond to the degree of coherence in a text, the measure of "cohesive harmony" developed by Hasan (1984) does constitute an index of the 'textness' of extended discourse, including interactive exchanges. A team of functional linguists and psychiatrists investigated the discourse correlates of techniques in the Conversational Model of Psychotherapy (following Meares, 1993, 2005). As one dimension of this investigation, the "fragmented" discourse of dissociating patients was analysed for cohesive harmony. This analysis provided a basis for discriminating degrees of fragmentation in the discourse of patients interacting with therapists, and results help explain the paradoxical combination of disaggregation and fusion in the way such patients construe their experience. Additionally, the method provides new forms of evidence of coherence and consensus between therapist and patient, indices of progress which might otherwise be 'lost' or argued on an intuitive basis alone. Halliday, M. A. K., & Hasan, R. (Eds.). (1985). Language, context, and text: Aspects of language in a social semiotic perspective. Deakin University: Deakin University Press. Hasan, R. (1984). Coherence and Cohesive Harmony. In J. Flood (Ed.), Understanding Reading Comprehension: Cognition, language, and the structure of prose (pp. 181-219). Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association. Meares, R. (1993). The Metaphor of Play: Disruption and Restoration in the Borderline Experience. Northvale, NJ: Aronson. Meares, R. (2005). The Metaphor of Play: Origin and Breakdown of Personal Being (3rd, revised ed.). London: Routledge.

Author Biographies

  • David Grimston Butt, Centre for Language in Social Life, Macquarie University, Australia

    David Butt is A/Professor in linguistics and the Director of the Centre for Language in Social Life (CLSL) at faculty of Human Sciences, Macquarie University in Sydney. His work is predominantly in the interpretation and modelling of patterns of discourse in diverse fields – from literary stylistics to contexts of professional responsibility. He has worked with CLSL colleagues on many projects, eg. in surgical care; brain sciences; mental tools in classroom talk; the language of scientific debate; and the discourse correlates of psychotherapeutic concepts.

  • Alison Rotha Moore, Language Centre, University of Wollongong and Centre for Language in Social Life, Macquarie University, Australia

    Dr Alison Moore is a Lecturer in English Language & Linguistics at the University of Wollongong and an Honorary Associate in the Centre for Language in Social Life at Macquarie University. She is particularly interested in how agency, risk and engagement are construed linguistically and through other modes, and is also trying to operationalise a 'multistratal slice' approach in register studies. Recent research addresses contexts such as psychotherapy, surgical teamwork, HIV clinical consultations, genetic counselling, workers’ compensation, and pharmaceutical advertising and information.

  • Caroline Henderson-Brooks, Centre for Language in Social Life, Macquarie University, Australia

    Dr Caroline Henderson-Brooks is an Honorary Associate of the Centre for Language in Social Life. Her doctoral research examined the linguistic features of the different kinds of patient discourse recognised as significant to treatment in the Conversational Model of Psychotherapy.

  • Joan Haliburn, Centre for Psychiatric Research, Westmead Millennium Institute, Westmead Hospital & Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Sydney, Australia

    Dr Joan Haliburn is Clinical Senior Lecturer in Psychotherapy (Western Clinical School) at Westmead Hospital, the University of Sydney. Dr Haliburn is a leading practitioner of the Conversational Model (CM) of Psychotherapy, and has presented plenary papers to many forums on the efficacy of the CM as a method.

  • Russell Meares, Centre for Psychiatric Research, Westmead Millennium Institute, Westmead Hospital & Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Sydney, Australia

    Emeritus Professor Russell Meares has been Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at Sydney University and Director of Joint Centres of Mental Health Excellence, Sydney, since 2002. Prof. Meares, along with Robert Hobson, developed the Conversational Model of Psychotherapy, much influenced by the insights of William James (in particular, by James’s focus on the ‘duplex’ self).

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Published

2010-06-14

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Butt, D. G., Moore, A. R., Henderson-Brooks, C., Haliburn, J., & Meares, R. (2010). Dissociation, Relatedness, and ‘Cohesive Harmony’: A linguistic measure of degrees of ‘fragmentation’?. Linguistics and the Human Sciences, 3(3), 263-293. https://doi.org/10.1558/lhs.v3i3.263