Incidences of the dimension of musicality of the voice in the face of transference in the psychoanalytic clinic

Abstract

This paper proposes an approximation between the musical dimension of the voice and the psychoanalytic clinic, articulating the fields of music, voice and psychoanalysis based on the listening of psychoanalysts with a Lacanian orientation. Focusing on the musicality of the voice and its implication in transference, a qualitative and exploratory approach was adopted, based on the snowball sampling and psychoanalytic method. Interviews were conducted with four psychoanalysts, whose clinical reports revealed how the voice – in its rhythmic, sonorous and affective aspects – operates as a fundamental element in listening to the unconscious. The vignettes analyzed show that the voice can sustain desire, establish resonances between analyst and patient and constitute a support for the emergence of transference. Silences, babbling, repetitions and unconventional musicalities appear as expressive forms that favor the clinical encounter and allow the emergence of a singular speech. The voice, in this context, is not only a vehicle of meaning, but also a means of affectation and subjective inscription. Furthermore, it is worth noting that the training of the analyst also involves his or her ability to listen – a listening that is in tune with the rhythm of the other, sustained by transference and marked by a deaf point in relation to object a. Thus, more than answering the initial question – what are the implications of the musicality of the voice in relation to transference in the psychoanalytic clinic? – this study seeks to outline possible avenues of investigation between different fields of knowledge, without the intention of exhausting the subject. On the contrary, it seeks to raise new questions and indicate connections that may inspire future studies on the interfaces between voice, music and subjectivation in the psychoanalytic clinic.