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Article published In: Pragmatics
Vol. 36:1 (2026) ► pp.37–62

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Claims of not-knowing as patients’ responses in psychodynamic psychotherapy

ORCiD logo with link | Leibniz Institute for the German Language
Published online: 16 December 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.24022.fen
Abstract
A fundamental aspect of psychotherapeutic conversation is the joint work of therapist and patient on articulating something previously hidden or repressed. If the patient refuses to comply with the therapist’s questions or suggestions, such cooperative work is limited. A possible non-cooperative response by the patient is the claim of not-knowing. This study examines conversation analytically, using video recordings of German-speaking outpatient psychodynamic psychotherapies, how patients express two different claims of not-knowing (German ich weiß nicht (‘I don’t know’) and keine Ahnung (‘no idea’)) as a response to a question. The analysis results in four different functions: refusing to answer, indexing difficulties, projecting continuation, and disconfirming, which can only be determined by means of the context and not the structure of ich weiß nicht or keine Ahnung. Some of the outlined functions might be context-specific for (psychodynamic) psychotherapy.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data and method
  • 3.Analysis
    • 3.1Refusing
    • 3.2Indexing difficulties
    • 3.3Projecting continuation
    • 3.4Disconfirming
  • 4.Results and discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (51)
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