Silence and Silencing in Psychoanalysis Cultural, Clinical, and Research Perspectives

This impressive edited volume significantly contributes to our knowledge of an under-investigated aspect of the talking cure. Silence, as readers will come to learn from a large cast of international experts, is not a mere absence of talk, but a resource that serves crucial interactional, therapeutic and cultural functions. This book will become essential reading for anyone wanting to know more about the importance of silence and silencing.

Peter Muntigl, Simon Fraser University

This book contains a wealth of information about silence and silencing. It examines how psychoanalysts and psychotherapists understand their patients' and their own silences during therapy sessions, but also the influence of culture, religion, history, and music on human behavior and communication patterns, as well as the research on short and long silences in the psychotherapeutic treatment room. I consider this publication to be a monumental textbook that peaks the reader's knowledge of human nature and increases our awareness of therapeutic approaches to silence and silencing.

Vamik D. Volkan, M. D., Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, University of Virginia and the author of Psychoanalytic Technique Expanded: A Textbook on Psychoanalytic Treatment

In the psychoanalytic literature, there are many papers that examine the communicative function and power of silence, yet there is no major comprehensive monographic treatment of silence. This book closes that gap. After an overview of culturally determined forms of silence, the two main sections focus on its significance in psychoanalytic treatments. The clinical perspective is complemented - and this is the special feature of this volume - by empirical studies using the method of conversation analysis, which provides results that will be inspiring for clinicians. The editors have succeeded in creating a book that shows silence as a fundamental human phenomenon, a tremendously important element of talk and interaction, and an inevitable part of psychoanalytic treatments.

Werner Bohleber, PhD, Former editor-in-chief of the German psychoanalytic journal "Psyche"