Hypnotic Language Pattern
Selectional Restriction Violation

Any sentence that isn’t logical and doesn’t really make sense may be using a selectional restriction violation. This often the attribution of qualities to something or someone which by definition could not possess those qualities.

For example ‘The walls have ears.’ or ‘You’ll upset my car if you say that…’ when Obviously cars don’t have feelings and walls have no perceptive abilities. The fact that I said something implies that I am trying to communicate something, so the listener is left with the task of deciding what it is I actually meant.

Statements like these are often interpreted personally as referring to the listener and can contain valuable therapeutic ideas that cannot be said directly. This is an unconscious process.

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