‘Meaning as Use’ in Psychotherapy: How to Understand ‘You have my Mind in the Drawer of your Desk

Abstract

Much of Wittgenstein’s work was to show that there is an internal relation
between language and world. Furthermore there is not a thinking subject who is
independent of the language in which a subject represents some state of affairs.
But most psychiatry, psycho-analysis, and cognitive therapy assume there is and
base their therapy on it. We will discuss a patient who thought her mind was in
the drawer of her desk to illustrate a different approach to therapy inspired by
Wittgenstein’s insight.