Renevey's dissertation argues that self-analysis and the investigation of self through mystic and religious thought and writings is not a modern trend. He shows how 12th-century commentators, such as William of St Thierry and St Bernard of Clairvaux, used the material of the Song of Songs to experiment with a language of love to express `their mystical experiences and the discovery of their own selves'. The second part of the study traces the development of this experimentation in the commentaries of Richard Rolle, a 14th-century hermit.