Words that heal

Abstract

The value of words in the healing process runs constant to the path of therapeutic treatment, the net of exchanges and relationships between brain chemistry and the right words in order to heal is subtle and intricate. Psychotherapy, a treatment with words, is shown to be a treatment that directly affects the brain and that is able to change it stably, even in its anatomical structure and function. According to Kandel (1999), a leading living scientist and Nobel Prize winner for medicine and physiology, American neurologist and psychiatrist, psychotherapy is a real cure, a biological treatment, as it produces behavioral changes through new words and new experiences. The article offers a brief overview of the use of the fantasy of argument, since the time of the classical rethoric of the sophists up to the new rethoric, to illustrate how the structure of the speech, and the dialectic ability of opposing different thoughts, closely resembles the way of thinking. Consequently the choice of words can be considered an instrument of great impact that is inserted in the stream of thoughts that determines the attitude of a person, and therefore, his/her actions. This happens whenever you communicate voluntarily, and not simply when interacting. The right choice of words remains a turning point in all of our relationships, not only in therapeutic situations, but in every other social relationship in life, family or friends.