The Shrimp-Mirror-Stitch, or Voice in Psychoanalysis

Abstract

The paper is an attempt at a systematic review and a tentative synthesis of the philosophically most relevant theories of voice that are to be found within the psychoanalytic tradition. Beginning with some reflections borrowed from Thomas Ogden, the author proceeds to examine two lines of thinking about voice: the ‘paternal’ line which discusses voice mostly in relation to the superego and the orientation of the self and the ‘maternal’ line which discusses voice in relation to the processes of subjective constitution. Having analyzed selected insights of such authors as Freud, Reik, Isakower and Lacan within the paternal line and Lacan, Anzieu, Rosolato, Vasse, and Abraham&Török within the maternal one, the author attempts to show the common features of many of these diverse takes, focusing especially on the processes of internalization of external voices and on the strange status of voice as both most intimate and alien to us. The closing discussion of Mladen Dolar’s theory opens the way to a synthetic view of voice as the paradoxical kernel of human subjectivity.

Keywords

• voice
• psychoanalysis
• subjectivity
• body
• acoustic mirror