Abstract
This issue is based on a conference that was held in July 2023 and that focused on new advances in the theory and measures of the Referential Process (RP). The concept of the RP was developed in the context of the Multiple Code Theory (MCT) and concerns the complex process by which people are able to connect all manner of experiences, including bodily and emotional experience, to words, in both spoken and written language. A previous issue of this journal, published in 2021, outlined the theory of the referential process, and included empirical and clinical applications. The research studies featured measures of language style based on the Discourse Attributes Analysis Program (DAAP), a computerized text analysis system that was developed by Bernard Maskit in the context of MCT. The 2023 conference covered new developments in the DAAP research program and also featured Dr. Maskit's presentation of the new TDAAP (Time-based DAAP) which analyzes spoken language on the basis of time flow rather than word count. This new program takes a major step towards examining the role of sensory and bodily experience in the verbal communication of experience. The conference was sponsored by the Pacella Research Center of the New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. It included both in-person and online participants across the U.S. and in Canada, Israel, and Italy, and represented the combined efforts of researchers and clinicians. At the conclusion of the conference, the editor of this journal, Dr. Rafael Javier, invited submission of the papers presented at the meetings for a special issue of the journal. In this introduction, we will briefly outline the theory that provides the conceptual framework for our projects. The next section will provide a brief introduction to the papers that are included in this issue.