Clients' unconscious communications as the basis for establishing the framework of treatment: A response to articles by Schamess and Saari

Abstract

Robert Langs' conclusions regarding clients' needs for a specific type of framework are based on listening to unconscious communication. His critics argue that certain severely disturbed clients need modifications in this frame. But these critics are arguing from a different set of data—data derived primarily from manifest content listening. Clients' unconscious communications reveal that—in spite of apparent need or conscious demand for modifications in the framework—clients actually need the therapist to maintain the frame. Langs' concept of unconscious communication is explained. A clinical vignette demonstrates how a client communicates an unconscious need for a therapist to maintain an aspect of the frame.