Objet Petit <i>la di da</i> , or the Jouissance of Verbal Ineptitude

In my response to Daniel Butler’s paper in this issue, I reflect on the psychotherapeutic challenge to “say anything” through the lens of my formative adolescent internalization of the speech patterns of certain film stars, most notably Diane Keaton in performances from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Focusing on what it might mean, intersubjectively speaking, to oscillate more freely between articulacy and inarticulacy, I posit a potential for emotional growth in the presence of an earnest babbler who is willing, in good faith, to embody the fool.