[In this page and in the following ones you will find several small images: clicking on these thumbnails new windows will open up, with in-depth treatment of the subjects or description of real cases]
The content analysis of a message is an ideal tool to increase the degree of comprehension of any written communication.
Even if this kind of study is still lagging behind in Italy, in other countries (United States and Germany for instance) it is widely used to deepen insight and to retrieve valuable information both in the criminological and in the psychological field.
Basically, this method of analysis is grounded on the fact that any written communication carries a lot of additional and significant information under or within the main (ready-to-be-seen) explicit message.
For family/cultural/social reasons, each of us slowly develops a very peculiar way to express ideas by means of a specific (personalized) syntax and by repeatedly resorting to a well defined set of typical expressions and favourite words. Thus, even from a semantic point of view the written message can be broken up and piecemeal decoded till the attainment of a valuable information feedback regarding the writer's cultural level, his social class background, his main future expectations, his anxieties, his aversions and so on.
The in-depth content analysis of a written message is conducted through several methodological approaches; usually, as a starting point into research, a quantitative analysis is done so as to determine (with the collection of data and percentages) which words or expressions by a given writer result to be the most frequently used (and unconsciously resorted-to) options.
From the ensuing statistical data hypotheses can be developed with regards to the different (not immediately patent) issues carried along within the communication bulk.
Subsequently there follows a qualitative analysis, focused on the interplay between the different features brought up by the previous quantitative step and aimed at the detection of the writer's most sensitive spots and unconsciously stumbled upon subjects.
In this process of data combination and evaluation it is fundamental to keep under close scrutiny not only those elements that in harmony lead towards specific lines of message decoding, but also the discordant (or even clashing) features that might have surfaced during the text's content analysis.
The instruments used in this kind of research are usually computer software for raw data collection (quantitative analysis) and other specific programs to highlight the semantic-lexical features of synergy or contrast (these latter programs, though, can prove to be far from reliable and the expert's critical review is always preferable).
As a matter of fact, the accurate survey of the contents embedded within a written text makes it possible to significantly progress towards the comprehension and the subsequent depiction of the writer's characteristic personality traits; when this method of description is coupled with handwriting analysis, one might reach an amazing degree of accurateness in the delineation of a given individual. These analytical potentials often turn out to be of extreme usefulness, e. g. in the detection of the authorship of anonymous writings.
Finally, by way of a brief example, here follows the transcript of a text written by a middle-aged lady: among the trivialities of the explicit messages displayed en façade, there is the possibility to pick up abundant and precious information regarding the true nature of the problems affecting this woman's life:
"This was the first wedding reception I've attended that didn't have a beer bar and it was so boring. We didn't know what to do with ourselves before dinner started.
The nine-course dinner was delicious; it included lots of seafood, soup and meats. We thought nine courses would be too much and it wasn't, because we practically completed a lot of the dishes. Normally I want to hide my smoking from John's friends, but because Elaine wanted to smoke so bad and made it so obvious in front of John's friends, there wasn't any way to avoid it.
As Elaine and I walked across the ballroom to get outside, Kevin was whistling and yelling at us and saying, 'Check out those babes!'. It was a little embarrassing although I loved all that attention because I knew everyone in that ballroom was looking at the two of us beautiful women walking together. Is this the feeling that Sally and Elaine get all the time when they enter a room? They always turned heads as they entered any room and it would be both sexes admiring them too. I hardly get all this attention and when I do get it like this, it's awesome! What a great feeling. I'm normally very negative about myself and when I look good like I did tonight, it was such a great feeling to have everyone look and admire me. I know that Elaine has lots to do with it too."
This is the case of a person with a long-standing bulimia/anorexia history, a woman with serious, unresolved self-esteem problems, constantly seeking signs of acceptance and consideration by her neighbours.
Without getting into the analytical details, basically the themes leading to the dénouement of the embedded messages are: the notion of quantity, the food, the concealment/display polarity, the inability to put behavioural drives under control, the quest for regard and attention - all features frequently recurring in bulimia/anorexia conditions.
