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The impetus for this article came from an invitation to join a panel that had as its subject the use of the voice in the psychoanalytic process. In approaching this subject from the perspective of the life and work of Sándor Ferenczi (1873-1933), which has been my principal research interest, I began to think about “the Voice.” Because Ferenczi had been passionately attentive to the metacommunications of the analytic situation, I thought it was likely that a longitudinal examination of his work would yield something worthwhile related to the topic, and this quickly proved to be true. Here follows a brief listing of my findings:
Ferenczi (1911) surmised that obscene words retain an investment of primitive fantasy and affect that otherwise undergo repression as a result of socialization and the advent of latency.
Ferenczi (1912) observed that transference frequently emerged in the form of transitory somatic symptoms. The voice, of course, was one vehicle of somatic expression, but the activity of the body itself constituted an averbal speech.
Dr. Vida is Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of Southern California School of Medicine, and Training and Supervising Analyst, Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles.
A version of a paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles, August 15, 1994, this revision has been enriched by the suggestions of Ernst Falzeder, whose great capacity for dialogue is most gratefully acknowledged.
Ferenczi (1913), employing the observations of a former patient, described a 3-year-old boy's traumatic encounter with a rooster, following which the boy became obsessed with poultry, mimicking their sounds and movements almost to the exclusion of ordinary speech.
Ferenczi (1919) further elaborated the notion that counter-transference was embedded in analytic technique, not only in the analyst's private space or in the content of interpretations, but in the entire approa