Musicality in the consulting room

ABSTRACT

I describe the ubiquity of the musical—non-metaphorical, actually musical—dimension in the psychoanalytic encounter. I point out that this needs underlining since, strangely, it has been neglected in psychoanalytic literature until recent years, which I suggest is a legacy of Freud’s aversion to music. I look at a wide range of psychoanalytic literature which invokes music metaphorically while neglecting its literal musicality. I also explore the possible musical dimension of texts which explore non-verbal emotionality. I consider the long-term effects on internal object relations and personality of pre-verbal, infantile musicality and also of musicality within the womb. I conclude with an extended clinical example.

L'auteur de cet article décrit la dimension musicale—non-métaphorique, réellement musicale—de la rencontre analytique. Il souligne la nécessité de la prise en compte de cette dimension que la littérature analytique a eu étrangement tendance à négliger jusque dans les années récentes, une séquelle peut-être de l'aversion de Freud pour la musique. L'auteur passe en revue la littérature analytique, qui, si elle fait allusion à la musique dans sa dimension métaphorique, néglige la musicalité au sens littéral. Il étudie également la dimension musicale dans les textes qui explorent la question de l'émotionnalité non-verbale. Il prend en considération ses effets à long terme sur les relations d'objet interne, ainsi que la musicalité personnelle pré-verbale, infantile, voire même intra-utérine. Il conclut en s'appuyant sur un exemple clinique détaillé.

Ich beschreibe die Allgegenwart der musikalischen—nicht metaphorischen, sondern im Wortsinn musikalischen—Dimension in der psychoanalytischen Begegnung. Ich zeige auf, dass deren Allgegenwart betont werden muss, da diese musikalische Dimension erstaunlicherweise bis vor einigen Jahren in der psychoanalytischen Literatur vernachlässigt wurde, was ich als Hinterlassenschaft von Freuds Aversion gegen Musik auslege. Ich gehe auf ein breites Spektrum psychoanalytischer Literatur ein, wo die metaphorische Ebene der Musik thematisiert, jedoch wörtlich zu verstehende Musikalität vernachlässigt wird. Ich untersuche außerdem die möglicherweise vorhandene musikalische Dimension von Texten, die sich mit nonverbaler Emotionalität befassen. Ich betrachte die Langzeitwirkungen präverbaler kindlicher Musikalität und auch der Musikalität im Mutterleib im Hinblick auf innere Objektbeziehungen und die Persönlichkeit. Ich schließe mit einem ausführlichen klinischen Fallbeispiel.

La natura di quella che gli analisti considerano essere un’interpretazione psicoanalitica, il setting in cui essa emerge e le cause specifiche della sua formulazione, le circostanze e i modi in cui il transfert dovrebbe venire interpretato: sono tutti aspetti, questi, che nel tempo si sono fatti man mano meno chiari e anzi sempre più controversi. Nel presente articolo mi propongo di delineare e sviluppare un argomento che mi permetterà di mostrare e sostenere il valore (per lo meno all’interno delle tradizioni basate sulle relazioni oggettuali) che l’adozione di un modello di pratica parsimonioso in questo ambito può avere per l’attività di riflessione post-seduta. Tale modello si fonda su un particolare modo di intendere le associazioni libere, l’attenzione liberamente fluttuante, le resistenze e il transfert, nonché sulla distinzione tra due intenzioni epistemologicamente diverse che possono sottendere un’interpretazione di transfert. La prima, chiamata costruzione del transfert, ha lo scopo di rendere il paziente consapevole delle modalità inconsce del suo comportamento in seduta (e poi anche fuori), oltre che dei modi e delle ragioni per cui tutto ciò accade. La seconda intenzione, che chiamo invece designazione del transfert, si concentra sull’obiettivo più limitato di rendere i pazienti consapevoli di come essi esperiscono lo psicoanalista a livello inconscio in particolari momenti di resistenza nel corso della seduta. Entrambi i tipi di interpretazione possono essere utili, ma come avrò modo di sostenere è sugli interventi del secondo tipo che vanno poste le fondamenta per un reale cambiamento.

En el presente artículo, se describe la ubicuidad de la dimensión musical—no metafórica, sino real—en el encuentro psicoanalítico. Se señala la necesidad de resaltarla, puesto que, se considera que, curiosamente, ha sido pasada por alto en la literatura psicoanalítica hasta hace pocos años, sugiriendo que se trata de un legado de la aversión de Freud a la música. Se examina una amplia gama de literatura psicoanalítica que invoca la música de manera metafórica, mientras descuida su musicalidad literal. También se estudia la posible dimensión musical de textos que exploran la emocionalidad no verbal. Y se plantea los efectos de largo plazo de la musicalidad infantil preverbal, y también de la intrauterina, sobre las relaciones objetales internas y la personalidad. Se concluye con un amplio ejemplo clínico.

KEYWORDS:

• Musicality
• Didier Anzieu
• Dana Birksted-Breen

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all those who have read earlier versions of this paper and helped me to develop it, especially Richard Rusbridger, Maria Rhode, Anjali Grier, David Bell, Margot Waddell and the anonymous reviewers and editors—Lucy LaFarge and Dana Birksted-Breen—of the IJP.

ORCID

Francis Grier http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3757-852X

Notes

1 In another significant variation on this theme, Harrison (2014) in her paper “The Sandwich Model: The ‘Music and Dance’ of Therapeutic Action,” another title referring overtly to music, examines the role of micro-processes in clinical analysis (within the area of research of Beebe, Jaffe, and Lachmann 1992), and explores their constant interrelationship with theory and the overarching sense of large-scale time units, e.g. an entire session or an entire psychoanalysis. It is these fascinating micro-processes to which she refers as “music and dance” in the title of her paper: but, again, as with Ogden, the mention of music is mainly metaphorical. It particularly refers to rhythm, but never to pitch, melody, harmony or dissonance.

2 This would be a musical take on Grunberger’s theory of the monad (1989).

3 These pre-verbal experiences also resonate, I think, with what Bronstein (2015), developing Isaacs (1948), discusses regarding unconscious phantasy, including the semiotic—as contrasted with the symbolic—level as explored by Kristeva (1984). Bronstein writes: “In Kristeva’s view, Klein’s description of the early pre-oedipal phase corresponds with what she calls ‘the semiotic’. … Kristeva describes two separate modalities within the signifying process that constitutes language: the semiotic and the symbolic. … The semiotic is a ‘psychosomatic modality of the signifying process’ (Kristeva 1984, 28) … It is an emotional field tied to the drives (Life and Death drives) which appear via the prosody of language (emphasis, contrast, rhythm, tones, etc.) rather than in the denotative meaning of words. It is also associated with the maternal body as the first source of rhythms and movements for every human being” (Bronstein 2015, 931). Similar mother-infant relational phenomena are discussed from the perspective of the body by Hartung and Steinbrecher: “Vibration, rhythm and resonance occur in the interaction between mother and child in a quite specifically physical way. The foundation for this is formed by the various rhythms emanating from their bodies, for example that of the breath or the heartbeat, or their movements: more likely uncoordinated in the baby, but more likely regular in the mother. This rhythmic communication between mother and child plays an equally important part as vocal communication with its oscillations and bodily vibrations. The child picks up on all these different modes of expression, albeit interrelated in resonance and rhythms, thereby sensing for his part how he makes himself felt to the mother in a similar way. Ideally, the mother will be stimulated by the child’s rather vague, unrhythmic expressions of movement and utterances of sounds to generate images, reminiscences in herself, which can convey to her some meaning of her child’s messages” (Hartung and Steinbrecher 2018, 165).

4 My main focus is the analyst’s musical countertransference; it is of course quite possible for the patient to be the analytic partner particularly given to musical associations. For a thoughtful clinical example and discussion of this, see Canestri (1994).

5 Cf. Botella (2014, 928) associating to the famous Merry Widow waltz: “The melody of the Merry Widow had introduced in me the conviction of the existence of a different mother, whom Serge had never been able to imagine, who had never had the slightest existence in his discourse, and whom I had never been able to conceive of myself either—that is to say, a mother who was not the eternally depressed, abandoning and suicidal mother.”