I'm All Ears—Thoughts on Psychoanalysis: The Musical Reverie

Abstract

In this article I describe one dimension of the reverie phenomenon, which I term the “musical reverie,” whereby the therapist experiences a kind of daydreaming that includes songs with both lyrics and tunes. In early development, the reverie function permits a transformation of the baby's unprocessed and unmetabolized materials within the mother's psyche, so that once they are returned to the infant, it will be possible to contain them in a manner that neither overwhelms nor fragments the child. Likewise, this may operate in psychoanalytic treatment. This article suggests that the auditory dimension, where lyrics and tunes exist successfully, captures both the symbolic and the presymbolic, and bridges the two. I further suggest that the music serves the analyst in early, hopeless, and fragmented moments as a companion to reignite the psychic movement that has halted in both the patient's and the analyst's mind. The therapist's ability to process beta elements—the unmetabolized (unprocessed affective experience)—into alpha elements (thoughts that can be thought by the thinker) will enable the renewed movement and rehabilitation of the mind, even in barren, dead areas.

Keywords:

• reverie
• music
• movement
• symbol
• transformation
• sonorous bath

Notes

1 In therapy, I would describe the area of faith as being initially present through music and as an anchor for those moments with neither movement nor faith.

2 I use the terms “symbolizer” and “symbolized” in order to describe a condition in which the symbolization ability fails and the ability of thinking is reduced. In such a state there is no differences between the symbolizer and the symbolized, there is no dreaming and thinking ability. For further elaboration, see also Klein (1930).

3 The function that enables the establishment of language is related to the father's presence: Aulagnier (2001) claims that the father represents the verbal: language that is “the discourse of the others,” one that responds to logical and cognitive common rules.

4 The skin-ego is a metaphor describing the process whereby the infant's emerging ego develops a container for psychic contents that terms “a place” (Anzieu-Premmereur, 2015), leading to the child's security and sense of well-being. The ego envelops the psychic apparatus as the skin envelops the body. Thus, it forms a protective shield to screen exchanges with the id, the superego, and the outside world. The skin-ego is the foundation of the container–contained relationship.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hilit Erel-Brodsky

Hilit Erel-Brodsky, Ph.D., is a psychoanalyst affiliated with the Israeli Psychoanalytic Society and a lecturer at Tel Aviv University and Bar Ilan University.