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Those already familiar with Dr Music’s work will know that his writing is always accessible, written as much for a general audience as for a psychoanalytic readership. This book is no exception, perhaps even more so here; it is eminently readable and engaging.
The book begins by setting out its stall, with a description of what spark is, i.e., the feeling of being alive, full of zest, ‘raring to go’ and Music’s adoption of his own antonym: despark; described as feeling listless, low, lethargic or flat. The sparking metaphor is derived from energy and electricity origins, and is used creatively throughout the book to explore various human states, bringing in related metaphors such as that of an engine, to good effect. What follows then is set out in four parts examining different states on a sparking continuum; The Spark, Resparking, Unsparked, and Mis-sparking.
In Part One, Chapter One details the difference between being sparked and desparked, the conditions needed to maintain spark and those that endanger it, with a brief summary of early development and attachment. Chapter Two then defines the overarching ideas and recurring metaphors that Music has developed (sparking, danger signalling, priors and predictions, safening resetting and rebooting, nervous system whispering, an internal lifegiver, and finally a capacious container as derived from Bion’s work on containment [Bion, 1962]) that are to be found in the book.
Part Two focuses on desparked states, the instrumental role trauma and fear play in creating such states, and some of the methods that can be used to help people recover.
Part Three moves into the territory of ‘unsparked’ states, those people who have never had the experiences that could spark them, such as those whose early lives were marked by severe neglect and trauma. This is compared with those whose withdrawal is more of a protective mechanism as can be seen in people on the autistic spectrum.
Finally in Part Four there is an exploration of ‘mis-spa