Kuinka sanoittaa sanoittamatonta

Content analysis, discourse analysis, narrative analysis, and other widely used qualitative research methods are grounded in the interpretation of (typically linguistic) meanings. Yet when studying emotions, the phenomena that are often most intriguing and complex tend to be nonlinguistic—or even resist verbalization altogether. Bodily emotional experience and expression lose much of their distinctive character when forced into words and sentences. The difficulty of articulating such experiences is also characteristic of so-called mystical experiences. Throughout the history of religion, prominent mystics have repeatedly emphasized the ineffability of their experiences, yet, paradoxically, they have also produced thousands of pages attempting to describe them. In this article, we examine the linguistic strategies mystics have used in their efforts to express the inexpressible. These strategies include negation, analogy, metaphor, symbol, descriptions of embodiment, and silence. We argue that the language of mysticism offers a heuristic model for analyzing affect and other experiences that are difficult to articulate. To support this claim, we present examples from our own research materials, demonstrating how linguistic strategies characteristic of mystical discourse are employed therein. We also present concrete suggestions for identifying traces of nonlinguistic affect in textual materials.