‘An amazing combination of the most sophisticated, technically documented and profound psychoanalytic reflection on music, with a “musical” and sensitive description of psychoanalytic con- cepts and processes. By far the most advanced exploration today in this specific area, based on the author’s high expertise in both fields.’ Stefano Bolognini, Past President of the International Psychoanalytical Association The Sound of the Unconscious In this book, Ludovica Grassi explores the importance of music in psychoanalysis, arguing that music is a basic working tool for psyche, as words are composed of sound, rhythm and intonation more than lexical meaning. Starting from ethnomusicological, evolutionary, neurodevelopmental, psychological and psychoanalytical perspectives, the book explores music’s symbolic status, structure and way of operating compared to unconscious psychic functioning. Extraordinary similarities are revealed, especially in mechanisms such as repetition, imitation, variation (transformation), intimacy and the work of mourning, of the negative and of nostalgia. Moreover, silence and absence are essential components of music as well as of psychic and symbolic functioning. Time and temporality are specifically investigated in the book as key elements both in music and in symbolization and subjectivation processes. The role of the word’s phonic kernel and of the voice as fundamental links to emotions, the body, the sexual and the infantile has promising implications for psychoanalytic work. All these elements find an articulation in the natural as well as complex activity of listening, which conveys a tri-dimensional and polyphonic dimension of the world, so important both in music and in psychoanalysis. Illuminating the link between music and analysis in new and contemporary ways, The Sound of the Unconscious explores the resulting advances in theory and clinical practice and will be of great interest to practicing and training psychoanalysts and psychotherapists. Ludovica Grassi, MD, is a Child Neuropsychiatrist, Full Member of the Italian Society of Psychoanalysis and IPA, Expert in Child and Adolescent Psychoanalysis and Couple and Family Psychoanalyst. Her research and publication main topics are: ethnopsychoanalysis; music and psychoanalysis; the origins of psychic life and psychoanalytic work with infants, children, adults, couples and families. Psychoanalytic Ideas and Applications Series IPA Publications Committee Gabriela Legorreta (Montreal), Chair and Series Editor; Dominique Scarfone (Montreal); Catalina Bronstein (London); Lawrence Brown (Boston); Michele Ain (Montevideo); Carlos Moguillanski (Buenos Aires); Udo Hock (Berlin); Christine Kirchhoff (Berlin); Gennaro Saragnano (Rome) Consultant; Rhoda Bawdekar (London), Ex-officio as IPA Publishing Manager; Paul Crake (London), Ex-officio as IPA Executive Director Recent titles in the series include Permanent Disquiet Psychoanalysis and the Transitional Subject Michel de M’Uzan Psychoanalytic Work with Families and Couples Clinical Perspectives on Suffering Susana Kuras Mauer, Sara Moscona, and Silvia Resnizky Narcissistic Fantasies in Film and Fiction Masters of the Universe Ilany Kogan Psychoanalytic Reflections on Writing, Cinema and the Arts Facing Beauty and Loss Paola Golinelli Change Through Time in Psychoanalysis Transformations and Interventions, The Three Level Model Margaret Ann Fitzpatrick Hanly, Marina Altmann de Litvan, Ricardo Bernardi The Sound of the Unconscious Psychoanalysis as Music Ludovica Grassi First published 2021 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 Ludovica Grassi The right of Ludovica Grassi to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identificationand explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Grassi, Ludovica, 1955- author. Title: The sound of the unconscious : psychoanalysis as music / Ludovica Grassi. Description: New York : Routledge, 2021. | Series: The International Psychoanalytical Association psychoanalytic ideas and applications series | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Identifiers: LCCN 2020054375 (print) | LCCN 2020054376 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367645526 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367645533 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003125075 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Psychoanalysis and music. | Music‐‐Psychological aspects. Classification: LCC ML3838 .G73 2021 (print) | LCC ML3838 (ebook) | DDC 781.1/1‐‐dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020054375 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020054376 ISBN: 978-0-367-64552-6 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-64553-3 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-12507-5 (ebk) Typeset in Palatino by MPS Limited, Dehradun First the music, then the words.* Antonio Salieri (1786) Note * Prima la musica e poi le parole, or First the Music, then the Words, is the title of a one-act opera staged for the first time on 7 February 1786 in Vienna, with music by Antonio Salieri and libretto by Giovanni Battista Casti. Contents Acknowledgements xi Series Editor’s Foreword xii Foreword xiv Introduction 1 1 Sound and rhythm in psychic life and psychoanalytic work 7 2 Listening to the link: Music and primal relationships 26 3 On imitation 41 4 The music is not in the notes… Intimacy and the negative in music 59 5 Beyond space, time 71 6 Musical dialogues: The baby in a world of sound and rhythm 86 7 The musical unconscious in the family 97 8 Silence and absence: Sound and music during the coronavirus pandemic 110 x Contents Afterword 119 References 124 Index 132 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my music teachers, and particularly Pina Buonomo and Roberto Daina, for their enthusiastic and tenacious guidance through the world of music, which sowed the seeds for my passionate relationship with it. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to Harriet Wolfe, who generously offered me encouragement and useful critique throughout the writing of this book, as well as to Anna Nicolò, a dear friend and colleague, who always expressed her curiosity and support for my research. Without the careful copy-editing by Harriet Graham on my non-native English, this book would not have been so readable. Finally, I wish to thank my son Carlo, who inspired my first steps in this research and then helped me to assemble the figures, as well as my husband Alfredo, who always read and helpfully commented my drafts. Series Editor’s Foreword The Publications Committee of the International Psychoanalytic Association continues, with this volume, the series ‘Psychoanalytic Ideas and Applications’. The aim of this series is to focus on the scientific production of significant authors, whose works are outstanding contributions to the development of the psychoanalytic field and to set out relevant ideas and themes, generated during the history of psychoanalysis, that deserve to be known and discussed by present psychoanalysts. The relationship between psychoanalytic ideas and their applications has to be put forward from the perspective of theory, clinical practice and research, so as to maintain their validity for contemporary psychoanalysis. The Publication’s Committee’s objective is to share these ideas with the psychoanalytic community and with professionals in other related disciplines, in order to expand their knowledge and generate a productive interchange between the text and the reader. The IPA Publications Committee is pleased to publish the book The Sound of the Unconscious: Psychoanalysis as Music by Ludovica Grassi. The author is interested in going beyond the application of psychoanalysis to music. She proposes a musically informed psychoanalysis. This book is a much-welcomed creative study of the omnipresent existence of sound, rhythm and music in human experience since prenatal existence. Before birth the foetus inhabits a world of sounds: sounds of blood flow, body fluid, heartbeat, movement and breath. For the author, these are the somatic-psychic foundation of human experience. Based on evidence that music is a basic working tool for the psyche as it uses the same process and mechanisms, Dr. Grassi puts forward the idea that music plays a possible role in the development and functioning of psychic life. Dr. Grassi’s ability to draw parallels between the way music and the psyche function has the potential of enlarging the range of perceivable clinical elements in the psychoanalytic encounter which in turn widens Series Editor’s Foreword xiii the possibilities for intervention. The psychoanalyst’s attentiveness to musical components of psychic functioning carries the potential of enriching one’s receptivity to all the components of language, that is, going beyond the lexical meaning of the word and being sensitive to what it is made of, that is sound and rhythm. In this manner Dr. Grassi enriches the notion of analytic listening. In this volume, we can appreciate