We don’t think in words. The temptation to equate thinking with language is because words are more palpable than thoughts. After all – I’m thinking – if I couldn’t talk to myself how would I know what I was thinking? Thinking is hard work; few engage in it.

— Alan Fletcher, The Art of Looking Sideways

Ultimately, a richer language is essential to the skill of constructive criticism. Much like medicine, the identification of judgement errors is a diagnostic task, which requires a precise vocabulary. The name of a disease is a hook to which all that is known about the disease is attached, including vulnerabilities, environmental factors, symptoms, prognosis, and care.

— Daniel Kahneman

To put clothes on a thing is a kind of acknowledgement, like giving it a name. By this act we begin to differentiate what was undifferentiated. Sometimes we are unable to escape from a bad mood, for example, until we have correctly articulated the feeling. Articulation allows a slight gap to open between the feeling and the self, and that gap permits the freedom of both.