Semiotic Psychology is a special and selective history that focuses on naturally occurring language and its meanings. A review of classic studies from the 1930s through the 1950s shows how content analysis can examine discourse as diverse as plays and psychiatric interviews. This book provides the foundations of semiotic psychology, including its methodological and theoretical origins in psychology and anthropological linguistics, and illuminates the impact of cultural forces on thinking, emotion, attitude, and communication. It draws together the major threads underlying classic studies in the field, integrating theories that may never have appeared together previously. Semiotic Psychology will be of interest to semioticians, sociologists, social and clinical psychologists, linguistic anthropologists, cognitivists, and social scientists utilizing content analysis.