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To the Editor:
IN DISCUSSING METHODS OF INQUIRY Lewis Aron (1993, p. 302) refers to a clinical example that is used in my book (1967, p. 42) to illustrate how patient summaries and conceptions of events diminish the patient's experience of such events. I also suggested that certain typically asked questions would likely further raise the level of abstraction of patient reports, while inquiries directed toward fleshing out the concrete content in the report might enhance the possibility of an experience of self in the event.
Dr. Aron, however, sees me encouraging therapists to ask "any or all" of a series of questions, including those I believe would result in cognitive condensations. Dissimilar questions, in effect dissimilar procedures, can not be placed in the same basket for they issue from different methodologies of inquiry. Different questions activate the person in varying ways, thereby determining the character of the data produced. And it is the character of the data produced that enriches or impairs experience.