The bewitching power of words

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Rhetoric, generally defined as the “art of speaking or writing effectively,” is the ability to effectively use words or speech to persuade others. Although there are various types of persuasive speech—e.g., Aristotle’s three rhetorical appeals: logos, pathos, and ethos—the goal of speech is the same: to convince someone of something or persuade them through this speech.

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Without getting bogged down in the murky quagmire of the intricacies of rhetoric, it’s nevertheless important to understand the powerful effect rhetoric has on people.

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The magical power of words is bewitching, to say the least.

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The fantasies, wishes, ideas, urges, longings, impulses, resentments, and many other aspects of our largely unconscious mind are easily seduced or incited by words. For example, words can have an entrancing effect on our mind. By what we hear or read, we can be carried away with blissful delight, infantile wonder, or orgiastic rapture.

 

Conversely, one strategically used word can invoke within us the most destructive thoughts or feelings—which can then manifest as violent behavior. Words can make or break otherwise healthy relationships or heal otherwise broken relationships. Words spoken or written from anger and hate can incite hostile reactions in people that lead to all manner of discord and violence.

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However, for the purpose of investigating, what words do to us (or persuade us do to others) is not the only value they have. What words tell us about others is often more important than the reaction they invoke within us.

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“[Don’t] Stop projecting!”

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Apart from persuading others and influencing behavior, words are also a reflection of the person they came from. For investigators, this realization is crucial for effective and successful investigating.

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Our conscious mind is the filter of our unconscious mind. Projections are leaks from our unconscious that make it through the conscious gateway. This is important because our unconscious mind is always more truthful than our conscious mind. Thus, projections are especially valuable to discovering the truth.

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Everyone projects, whether knowingly or unknowingly (although most projections likely happen below our conscious awareness). These projections often manifest as Freudian slips—slips of the tongue (or pen or keyboard) that betray our unconscious thoughts, beliefs, wishes, biases, or motives.

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Some suggest that “for every 1,000 words spoken, we make one or two errors…[and] a slip is bound to occur about once every seven minutes of continuous talk. Each day, most of us make somewhere between 7 and 22 verbal slips.”

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Whether slips manifest as awkward gaffes of a politician or the exposed secret romantic feelings of a therapist for her client, and whether these slips are the product of repressed content in our unconscious mind seeking expression or linguistic snafus better explained through the framework of cognitive science, our internal unconscious contents have a habit of surfacing through our written and spoken words.

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These projections provide the [aware] investigator with valuable investigative material, so pay attention to them. Make note of them and follow up on them to understand their importance or relevance, if any, to the investigation.

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And remember, the truth often hides among the lies. So even if you don’t get the truth in pure form, it could be hanging out with the lies. Be sure to analyze them both with an objective, open mind.

    

To understand the messenger, pay attention to the message!

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There are several reasons people slip up and share things that could be damaging to themselves or to others—a disclosure that often makes or breaks an investigation.

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First, people have an inherent desire to be heard—to be understood. This appears to be associated (at least in part) with the existential need for validation (and thus, a sense of worth or belonging).

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Additionally, a person, at any given point, experiences an amalgam of feelings and thoughts—feelings and thoughts that are often associated with guilt, or worse, shame. As a consequence, people actively [often unconsciously] attempt to rid themselves of these guilt-laden feelings and thoughts—along with the anxiety they produce.

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Finally, people in general have underdeveloped self-regulatory faculties that are designed to check what content is disclosed to whom and when. Without these functional “screening” mechanisms in place, mature judgement is inhibited and feelings and thoughts more easily manifest into words—often to the detriment of the speaker.

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Put all these together and you have the perfect storm for Freudian slips.

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But for investigative purposes, why they slip up may be less important than what they slip up (although an understanding of both can certainly enhance the investigation).

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An astute investigator focuses on the message (or lack thereof) in addition to observing the messenger (see the forest for the trees and the trees for the forest). No doubt observing the individual who is speaking or writing is useful, but the spoken or written word itself can also have important implications for the investigation.

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A person’s choice of words, how these words are used by that person, gaps and transitions between words, and organization of words—including omission of words—all tell a story. It’s the investigator’s duty to pay attention to the nuances and idiosyncrasies and form and substance of the message in addition to observing the messenger.

Doing so helps to better understand the messenger.

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As people, our communication contains meaning—meaning that betrays the mystery that is our mind. This is true even if the investigator doesn’t see it. Understanding one can give us insight into the other.   

 

Watch for interference!  

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It’s also important to remember that just because someone says something doesn’t necessarily mean that something is meaningful or useful to an investigation. And it’s especially important to consider factors that may have affected that message.

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For example, if the investigation precedes litigation, the message needs to be credible. Intoxication, impairment, mental illness, or fatigue of the messenger may contaminate the message rendering it legally useless (no matter how valuable the message may be on its own standing).

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Pay attention to the conditions and context surrounding the message—i.e., maintain situational awareness. There are many factors that can affect and contaminate someone’s disclosure, e.g., Hawthorne effect, social desirability bias, response bias, duress, need to impress the investigator, feeling intimidated, telling the investigator what they “want” to hear, etc.

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A more developed understanding of these factors can significantly enhance the investigation by increasing the credibility and reliability of the information disclosed.

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Be objective in your analyses!

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Finally, it’s important to analyze the words of someone with an objective mind-set. The greater the self-awareness of the investigator, the more likely they are to see what is really there without their own projections clouding their analysis.

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We’re all human—investigators are no exception to this universal rule. Thus, we’re all predisposed to seeing things not as they are but as we want, or need, to see them. Remaining consciously aware of this default tendency can help the investigator actively counter it and be more objective.

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All of these considerations (and more) can significantly enhance the investigation. Developing one’s understanding of them should be a priority for the investigator who seeks the truth.