Mitchell’s first chapter on “Language and Reality” highlights the ongoing importance of language in psychoanalytic theories. Mitchell examines prominent psychoanalytic theorists, particularly Loewald’s writing on language and psychoanalysis. “The centrality of language in the psychoanalytic experience makes possible a reanimation of psychic life through the excavation and revitalization of words in their original dense, sensory context in the early years of the patient's life” (12). This chapter emphasizes the dichotomy of development between preverbal and verbal childhood development. How do early childhood linguistic experiences shape an adult's psyche? What are these traces that remain throughout one's life? The article provided an engaging discussion on the impact of language and development on a person's psych. However, it focused on the dichotomies within psychoanalysis. What is the value in using dichotomies to frame psychoanalysis? How does focusing on verbal communication exclude non-verbal communicators?
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