Speech acts in psychoanalytic discourse

Clinical phenomena in the pragmatics of the psychoanalytic discourse play an important role in the treatment of patients with severe ego-pathology. J.L. Austins theory of speech acts, in particular the distinction between locutionary and illocutionary acts provides a frame for the description of these phenomena. A performative use of utterances can serve to regulate the transference-relationship. The extent, to which performatives are used in the psychoanalytic dis course reflects, as other forms of acting in, the level of ego-functioning and symbol-formation.