You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
A Triad of Silence: Silence, Masochism and Depression. Jerome L. Weinberger. Pp. 304-309.
Comment on Dr. Nacht's and Dr. Weinberger's Papers. Arthur F. Valenstein. Pp. 310-311.
According to Nacht the vague feeling of incompleteness experienced by some people appears to be nostalgia for fusion with some prime source of life deeper than the gratification of instinctual drives. When the analyst is a good object for the patient and able to convey silence free of aggression or anxiety there are fleeting moments when the patient experiences fusion with him and finds invaluable peace and strength for achieving normal relationships. The analyst must resolutely keep the experience momentary lest the patient be too gratified and become prone to regressive satisfactions.
The triad of the silence syndrome is found especially in the firstborn and relates to loss of status with the mother between eighteen months and three years of age. Weinberger thinks that the same triad is enacted in psychoanalysis and expresses a fear of being hurt as well as fear of success of treatment as preliminary to being rejected. Success of treatment depends upon the intensity of withdrawal and the ability to form a positive relationship to the analyst.
Valenstein thinks that both Nacht and Weinberger stress the importance of early relationship to the mother. However, Weinberger stresses the importance of insight in treatment while Nacht appears to regard this as secondary to the analyst's selfless love. His theory of therapy appears close to Ferenczi and Rank's emphasis on repeating and reliving rather than changing through insight. A resulting mystique of silence appears to leave the patient especially accessible to the analyst's intervention.