Voice of the Analyst

A number of factors are in play when we speak of whether or not there is a “good fit” between mother and infant. The same is true with respect to analyst and patient. A therapist with a cognitive style that is essentially linear will have difficulty following the intricate paths of the patient for whom patterns, feedback loops, and paradox make up much of his cognitive reality. In reverse, the predominantly right-brained therapist may be frustrated by the linear patient's plodding style.

Certainly voice—the therapist's literal voice as discussed by Harriet Kimble Wrye—can, for the patient, be experienced as “wrong.” The fit is not good. Whether we speak with the harsh cadence and consonants of a native New Yorker or the easier tones of the therapist raised in Mississippi, these qualities of our voice are not a neurotic habit to be analyzed away. From this perspective one's voice, although undeniably learned, is as intrinsic as the color of one's eyes.

From time to time the therapist may find herself with a patient who complains about her literal voice, who says there is something wrong with the way she speaks. The analyst may be puzzled, thinking that she has been empathically in tune with the individual, mystified as to her “wrongness.” These may well be experiences that the patient had vis-à-vis the mother growing up.

When what is “wrong” are the tonal qualities and speech patterns of our actual voice, we may experience an assault on what seems to us to be our intrinsic nature and react accordingly. Sometimes what is “wrong” is not fixable. Sometimes the failure of fit will result in the patient's leaving therapy with both parties unclear as to what happened and both feeling disappointed and even hurt.

Perhaps in these cases the actual voice of the therapist, empathy and wisdom aside, is what causes the failure of fit. Sometimes by attending to the fascinating ideas concerning the actual voice of the analyst by Wrye, we may be able to adjust our voice accordingly. Som