Listening

Bohm reminds us that we are, as we listen to patients,  influenced by our theories and training; and while theories may help us organize and make sense of what we hear, we must be careful not to fit the patient into the Procrustean bed of our theories, but instead be open to surprise and  learning anew. We must tolerate uncertainty and accept that we cannot always know what is going on in every moment of the therapeutic encounter. I am reminded of a visit to Tampa in Sept 2010  from Sandor Shapiro  [see post 9-12-10] when he noted that theory helps mitigate the analyst’s anxiety and not to underestimate the value of lessening the analyst’s anxiety!  Bohm suggests we “work with mixtures of exploring and applying attitudes” and he favors “more pluralistic thought systems.”

Meissner, while accepting as fact objectivity and neutrality, nonetheless reminds us to listen at “multiple levels of discourse simultaneously.” He writes, “The analyst listens not merely to the words…but also to the tone, pace, affective coloring, nuances of expression, and …  other behavioral factors…” and he believes (re: reading the patient) that “there is no reading at all without a previously accepted framework.”

Ideas about listening analytically are on my mind not just because they are being discussed by candidates and students in the introductory series, but also because attorneys, among others, have recently inquired about how psychoanalytic listening differs from that done by a psychiatrist. I can’t help but think that my psychiatry training taught me to listen from a statistical point of view with the aim of fitting what I heard into columns A and B of a Chinese menu of diagnoses, whereas my psychoanalytic training thought me to listen from the unique and singular POV of one patient’s experience, to listen for not just what the patient says, but for what s/he intends, and even to read between the lines for intentions that the patient may not yet be aware that s/he has.  All the while we cannot be completely sure of the other's subjectivity, except, as candidate Dimitris Tsiakos, points out, we are the while participating (co-creating) our subjectivities. If you don't mind the mixed metaphor, it is a tough nut to juggle so many balls in the air simultaneously .