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Research suggests that choices and limitations in utilizing language tend to be commensurate with one’s socioeconomic status (Pace et al., 2017; Schwab & Lew-Williams, 2016) as well with as one’s sensitivity to context (Wagner et al., 2010; Wagner et al., 2014). The latter is especially the purview of the linguistic register. The relationship between two parties, their relative status, and the situational context wherein conversation occurs is manifested in the linguistic register that the speaker and the listener wield (Ikeda et al., 2018). Any shift in the register engenders transmutations in word order, vocabulary choice, and situational use, which are syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, respectively (Boult, 2007). Ikeda et al. (2019) argued that the choice of register can constitute a form of control which, if adopted insensitively, conveys rudeness and perniciously impacts the relationship between the parties. A wrong choice of the linguistic register in an analytic context, whether unintentional or purposeful, implies a certain intention and may be interpreted diagnostically and not just as disrespectful behavior.
It is worth noting the word “control” and its variable role since it implies a persisting cleavage between what lies within and without the boundaries of the linguistic envelope. We focus here on this form of boundary creation so as to provide added insight into the patient’s inner world. The psychoanalytic framework provides a container for the treatment process and entails a multitude of elements, including, but not limited to, the position of the patient (chair/couch), the length and frequency of appointments, the fee, and the analyst’s capacity for self-observation of shifts in inner world dynamics (Gabbard, 2016). The boundary-defining criteria we cite differs especially in national contexts. British psychoanalysts, for example, generally consider that only a high weekly frequency of sessions qualifies treatment as psychoanalysis, while the French