Three examples of “motorically generated vocalizations” (p. 285) are examined by Goldman in this clinically oriented paper. The author proposes that they are linked by an “underlying theme” of “failed striving for a religious-type, mystical oneness, akin to the oceanic feeling” (p. 285). The three types of vocalization explored are imperious bellowing, blaring, and blathering.

Goldman first details a variety of views on the bellowing of Daniel Paul Schreber, as detailed in his memoir. Freud was interested in the object of Schreber's bellowing: the sun and its many possible meanings. Lacan was interested in the defensive function of the bellowing. Goldman wonders about the “sensuous, almost masturbatory stimulation