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The ear, in psychodynamic investigation, is a silent area. Meticulously studied by the experimentalist, the auditory mechanism has received little attention from the psychoanalyst, although he depends on it daily. Perhaps this fact reflects a general tendency—to "view" the world in terms of our most useful perceptive tool, vision. In any dictionary of phrases, synonyms or quotations, optical references outnumber acoustic ones about four to one. Schilder's volume on the body image (27) scarcely refers to the ear. Psychoanalysts have written a great deal about language, a certain amount about sounds, including music; but there are few references to the actual acoustic apparatus, except for the studies of Abraham (1), Jones (13), and Isakower (12). This paper is an effort to extend their reports. It will discuss the role played in psychic life by the ear, as a part of the body and as a perceptual instrument.
My starting point was work with deafened patients (15). Gross physical damage is often inconspicuous in deafness. That fact, a source of chargrin to those who feel very crippled, can lead in others to an apparent lack of any concern with the ears as such. At a deeper level, of course, the failure of function creates feelings of mutilation, of having inferior, "bad ears." Hard-of-hearing patients