On the relation of ''referential activity'' and the verbal expression emotions in psychotherapeutic interviews

The ''Dual Code Theory'' of Paivio and Bucci's concept of ''Referential Activity'' refer to the different modes of mental representation. Similarity with Freud's notion of primary and secondary process as well as clinical implications led to an empirical study of these cognitive approaches with german transcripts. Bucci's hypotheses as to the relation of ''Referential activity'' to the primary process as well as to the therapeutic work on emotions were investigated my means of the ''Regressive Imagery Dictionary'' (ro assess primary and secondary process content) and the ''Affective Dictionary Ulm'' (to assess the affective vocabulary). The study of 50 initial psychotherapeutic interviews yielded significant results.