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Finding “Sense” without Co-Presence: The Role of Aesthetic Sensibility in an Ontological Approach to Psychoanalysis

2023; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 33; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/10481885.2023.2242408

1940-9222

Alice X. Huang,

Neurology and Historical Studies

ABSTRACTAesthetic sensibility is a feature of an ontological approach to psychoanalysis. The author writes about an analysis that switched to video work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Without co-presence, the analyst found sensorial substitutes for in-person contact with the patient through her aesthetic experiences of a film, a song, and a poem, which served as transitional spaces for analytic functioning. This was central in facilitating an affective, embodied contact – a felt-sense – with the experience of separation during the pandemic. The analyst's aesthetic engagement can enable connectivity within the analytic field and mediate an expansion of consciousness in analytic work.This article is referred to by:Discussion of Alice Huang's "Finding Sense…"Sense and Sensibility: On the Aesthetics of Psychoanalytic Work Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Russell (Citation2018, pp. 134–49) expounds on the idea of presence in the clinical encounter in the context of video-mediated analysis.2 I abstract the ontological and epistemological aspects as conceptual poles here to more clearly explore an idea in writing. In clinical practice, these aspects interrelate in ways that are fluid, complex, and not easily separable.3 By not-conscious, I am referring to unconscious psycho-somatic life that is outside of the dynamic Unconscious.4 There is empirical evidence that the interactive syntax of sound, gesture, and bodily contact between the caregiver and infant appears co-coordinated and musical in its patterning. This is a concept called communicative musicality (Malloch & Trevarthen, Citation2018).5 Goldberg (Citation2012) situates his conception of sensory communion as taking place outside of the dynamic unconscious, but vital to the development of other forms of consciousness that make up human psycho-somatic life.6 I concur with Knoblauch's (Citation2017) suggestion that the analytic field includes the fluid continuous patterning of emotional rhythms within the dyad that occur on a faster timescale and that are more difficult to narrate than categorical or structural representations of interaction.7 Jon is Caucasian. There are many potential avenues of discussion for how our racial-ethnic differences intersected with the other dynamics of the clinical process, but they are beyond the scope of this paper. I recognize that some readers may question my choice to leave out such a discussion in a case where racial differences exist.8 Daft Punk is known for their synthesized music production and, specifically, their unique incorporation of track sampling. They were pioneers in a movement of dance music that evolved to where a track could be produced entirely from a home computer in isolation. Thomas Bangalter, of Daft Punk, described their album Random Access Memories, which includes this track, as an effort to reclaim the live studio production aesthetic. They did so by recording live vocals, drums, and instruments (as opposed to using only synthesized sounds) to capture the "magic" of the disco music sampling in their earlier work (Mason, Citation2013). This added human richness to the digital feel of their music. The basis of this album could be a metaphor for what happened to psychoanalysis in the pandemic: a live production replicated through the screen that in the process might have lost some of its rich timbre, its "magic."9 Blum et al. (Citation2023) writes on the role of music and musicality as a foundation to our psychical life, our capacity for dialogue, and our embodied sense of participation in the shared cultural world.Additional informationNotes on contributorsAlice X. HuangAlice X. Huang, M.D., M.S., is a psychoanalyst and psychiatrist in private practice in Portland, Oregon. She is the Chair of Continuing Education at the Oregon Psychoanalytic Center and a faculty member of the Oregon Psychoanalytic Institute. She is also a mother in full-time practice.