New research directions and clinical applications of the multiple code theory

In psychotherapeutic process research, the Multiple Code Theory (MCT) still remains an inspirational and important point of reference for researchers, clinical psychologists and psychotherapists interested in the reconceptualization – both clinically and empirically founded – of the psychoanalytic theory. Moreover, MCT made explicit some psychotherapeutic implications of adopting an embodied, intersubjective and contextual conception of the mind. The central hypothesis of MCT is that our experience of the world is coded in different and multiple systems (symbolic and non symbolic, verbal and non verbal) that are not completely connected and integrated with each other. Through the referential process we can improve the bidirectional connection among all non-verbal encoding modalities of the experience – i.e. imagery, emotions, bodily sensations – and the language. Therefore, the “talking cure” enables us to connect not only the patient and analyst’s subjectivities, but also the multiple systems in which they encode their experiences. From this perspective, the psychotherapeutic change is an embodied, contextual and relational process. In the last twenty years, many studies were conducted by the application of Referential Activity dictionaries that allow the computerized analysis of psychotherapeutic session transcriptions. This symposium will be an occasion to verify the state of art about the researches conducted up to this point and to present new clinical applications of MCT. More in detail, we will present: a) a study concerning the differentiation between the concept of referential activity and the concept of alexithymia; b) a new dictionary designed to monitor some countertransference aspects in connection with the referential activity measures; c) two examples of therapist’s utilization of the referential activity measures (the automated analysis of therapist’s notes and the Referential Activity Post-session Scale - RAPS) to monitor the ongoing clinical process.