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Can we speak about what cannot be heard but only experienced? Can we capture silence in the clinical work (a firefly perhaps) and portray it in writing? This discussion is an outgrowth of a not-quite-formulated idea of Melinda Gellman's. She had noticed that silence as a topic of interest or concern has seemed to drop out of the psychoanalytic conversation that we have with each other at meetings and in journal articles. In conceptualizing this roundtable she wanted to ponder this with a group of analysts who represent many differing theoretical positions and to put them in dialogue with each other. Each contributor will offer his or her reflective meditations on silence in the analytic encounter. They have written brief but illuminating essays, each one capturing some aspect of the experience of silence, its presence, its absence, and some of the interplay thereof.
Our field has generated many theories, and along with these approaches, it has developed stereotypes. I would like to make a brief mention of these stereotypes and suggest that our panel today will redress some of these, hoping to reinvigorate intellectual conversation. The topic of analytic silence might bring to mind the caricature of the silent Freudian analyst, neither speaking nor answering questions. It might also include the Kleinian analyst, who is always interpreting and talking. And not just any talk, but specifically about breasts and penises and devouring and ripping apart with greedy destructiveness or deep despair over injuring the beloved-a definitely not so silent analyst. The Kohutian self psychology analyst is mirroring and reflecting back to the patient what feels far less like talking, perhaps rephrasing or returning a kind of recognition of what the patient has been saying. Then there is the caricature of the relational analyst, also often talking and enacting and self-disclosing, all while engaging the patient. No wonder we may be missing a bit of silence around here!
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