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Int. J. Psycho-Anal. (1996) 77, 667

'LISTENING TO LISTENING'

HAYDEE FAIMBERG, PARIS

The author links the function ofanalytic listening to Freud's concept ofNachtriiglichkeit,
which she defines as the retroactive assignment of meaning rather than mere deferred
action, and derives the notion of 'listening to listening' from their combination. A
dialectical conception of time is proposed, with interpretation involving three logical
phases, respectively incumbent on the analyst, on the patient and on both. Two clinical
examples are given, showing how the patient speaks and listens from a position dictated
by his unconscious identifications, which also cause him to reinterpret the analyst's
interpretations and his silences. By listening to the patient's reassignment of meaning
to his interpretations, the analyst can discover the patient's unconscious identifications
and, together with the patient, thereby facilitate the process of psychic change. The
author contends that by the function of 'listening to listening' it is possible to overcome
the dilemma of whether the analyst with his interpretation or the patient with his own
reinterpretation of it is right.

This paper presents ideas, which I formu- The third proposition concerns the mean-
lated in 1981, about a function performed ing acquired by the interpretation after the
by the analyst during the session, namely patient's reinterpretation: it assumes a retro-
that of listening. I shall summarise the main active meaning, which depends on how the
thrust of my argument by four propositions. patient listened to it.
The first is that the patient speaks and listens The fourth proposition relates to the com-
on the basis of his unconscious identifications, plete cycle of the interpretation, which must
which are a constituent part of his psyche. include what the patient does with the in-
The second concerns what the patient does terpretation and the analyst's search for the
with the interpretations: he listens to the fate the patient has bestowed on it.
analyst's silence and interpretations and re- In other words, the interpretive cycle does
interprets them in accordance with his uncon- not end with the analyst's interpretation.'
scious identifications. These reinterpretations I shall present two clinical examples in
are in general not explicit; the analyst has support of my hypothesis. The first is the
difficulty in recognising them unless he looks original case that enabled me to formulate
for them. I consider that the analyst's rec- the concept of 'listening to listening'. The
ognition of the patient's reinterpretations is second, hitherto unpublished, illustrates the
of decisive importance. exercise of this function differently.

Translated by Philip Slotkin, MA, MIT!. 1 Pichon-Riviere (1957) referred in his seminars
to a dialectical spiral comprising (a) the patient's
This contribution is a partial adaptation of the words, (b) the analyst's interpretation, and (c) the
author's 1981 paper, with the addition of a second, new emergent-that is, the patient's words after the
hitherto unpublished vignette. interpretation.
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668 HAYDEE FAIM BERG

RETROACTIVE ATTRIBUTION OF MEANING When we propose an interpretation, we

(NACHTRA'GLICHKEIT) anticipate a meaning that has not yet become
quite clear, that the patient has been unable
If we can get away from the idea of a fully to incorporate into a meaningful con-
sequence of events in time shaped by a linear text. It is the patient himself who, by listen-
determinism we come closer to what I am ing to the interpretation, will activate in his
trying to convey. psyche a meaningful unconscious context. In
Freud adopts a dialectical approach to this way the original meaning put forward
the patient's history in stating that the pa- by the analyst may well be transformed,
tient subjects the events of the past to sub- thereby creating unexpected openings. I con-
sequent (nachtriiglich) revision. For example, clude that the meaningful context is not fully
in 1896 he wrote to Fliess as follows: 'the known to the analyst, nor is it known be-
material present in the form of memory traces forehand to the patient.
[is] ... subjected from time to time to a re-ar- My hypothesis is that this meaningful
rangement in accordance with fresh circum- context is linked to the history of the pa-
stances-to a re-transcription' (Freud, 1950, p. tient's unconscious identifications. Even when
233). (A radical distinction must be drawn the patient listens carefully to the interpre-
between this dialectical conception of time tations, he inevitably hears them in accord-
and lung's idea of 'retrospective fantasies'.) ance with his unconscious identifications.
According to the English translation of While not overlooking the distinction be-
Laplanche & Pontalis, the fate of 'deferred tween hearing and listening, I prefer to speak
revision' is undergone by 'whatever it has of the patient's 'listening'.
been impossible in the first instance to in- The patient reinterprets the interpretation
corporate fully into a meaningful context' and his response betrays the way in which
(1983, p. Il2). The word 'deferred' merely he has reinterpreted it. By listening to how
denotes something put off to a later time the patient has listened to the interpretation,
and does not adequately express the idea of the analyst is then able retroactively to assign
retroactivity and remodelling whereby new a new meaning to what he said, beyond what
value is conferred upon certain psychic con- he thought he was saying.
tents. Nachtrdglichkeit, or retroactive attri- I should like to describe this function of
bution of meaning tapres-coup in French or the analyst, which enables him to assign a
posterioridad in Spanish), is a fundamental retroactive meaning to his interpretation, as
psychoanalytic concept. 2 'listening to listening'.
While this concept could remain confined The operation of Nachtrdglichkeit is in-
to the assignment of new meaning to mem- volved in the function of 'listening to listening',
ory traces, I extend it to an operation of since, firstly, the analyst listens to the move-
reattribution of meaning in the analytic rela- ment of anticipation created by his own in-
tionship that consists of two inseparablephases, terpretation, while, secondly, he at the same
one of anticipation and another of retroaction. time assigns to this interpretation a retro-
My aim is to show how this mechanism op- active meaning (which arises from the way
erates in analytic listening.' the patient listened to it).

2 Modell (1990, p. 9) suggests that the phrase 'de- 3 From this point of view, even the most elemen-
ferred action' used in the Standard Edition be re- tary sentence undergoes this operation of reassign-
placed by 'retranscription of memory', while Thoma ment of meaning: while we are uttering a sentence,
& Cheshire (1991, pp. 401-45) prefer 'retrospective we anticipate a sense which we do not yet clearly
attribution of meaning'. know and which is revealed to us retroactively.
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'LISTENING TO LISTENING' 669

'LISTENING TO LISTENING' patient's psychic truths. This paradox is the

cornerstone of my approach.
The analyst chooses either to remain silent
or to interpret. Sometimes the patient also
hears the analyst's silence speaking to him. A MISUNDERSTANDING
For example, a patient may devote a sub-
stantial part of the session to an account of I shall now give an account of the original
an achievement of his, of which he is proud. case that led me to describe the importance
He stops talking and the analyst remains of listening to how the patient listens to
silent. When he speaks again after a long interpretations.
silence, the patient remembers the criticisms In some cases of nameless anxiety, as with
made by his father who was never satisfied the female patient in my clinical example, it
with anything done by his son. We may is not easy to adduce interpretations that
infer that the patient has been listening to the patient's reaction shows to have resulted
the analyst's silence as a criticism, as if the in a lifting of repression (which would con-
analyst had been saying: 'That is nothing to firm the validity of the interpretation). I have
be proud or. Through the function of 'lis- chosen a session that could be regarded as
tening to listening', we can recognise who a 'failure', but which enabled the patient and
the analyst is at this particular moment in the analyst to understand retroactively what
the transference. was involved in the patient's listening, as
As we know, when listening to the ana- well as the incompatible identifications at
lyst's silence or to his interpretations, the work. Analysis of the 'failure' also made it
patient reinterprets them in accordance with possible to understand what had happened
unconscious identifications that are a part in the transference.
of his psychic history. The reinterpretations I shall refer to two sessions separated by
are not in general explicit. A 'misunderstand- an interval of several years. During this
ing' may be said to have arisen between period, the process of analytic elaboration
what the analyst thought he was saying and brought about a change in the patient's mode
what the patient actually listened to. of psychic functioning which in my view
This brings me to my central hypothesis, made it possible for the patient and the
which is as follows. The patient's reinterpre- analyst in the second session to assign a
tations of the analyst's silence or interpreta- retroactive meaning to what had occurred
tions will assign a retroactive meaning to in the first.
the discourse implicit in the silence or the L spent much of her analysis recounting
interpretation. The analyst must listen to the anecdotes about the ill-treatment and mis-
way the patient has listened to his silence or fortune suffered by her. The situations were
his interpretation. In other words, Nachtrdg- reified, in that the patient did not present
lichkeit, or retroactive reattribution of mean- herself as a protagonist in her world. She
ing, governs this listening. described a world that was 'natural', fixed
On one level, the patient's reinterpretation and invariable, in which things simply were
of the analyst's interpretations might be a particular way. The analyst could not find
deemed an obstacle to listening to them. On any opening that would have enabled her
another level that is more properly analytic, to question this world. When L stopped
however, it becomes an essential instrument bringing anecdotes, she was unable to endure
for approaching unconscious psychic func- the silence. She would lapse into an anxiety
tioning. Misunderstanding thus appears as whose origin we could not discover-a name-
an indispensable step in the discovery of the less anxiety. When the patient heard the
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670 HAYDEE FAIMBERG

analyst's silence, the discourse implicit in this not knowing how she had won'. We recalled
silence may be said to have aroused in her that the interpretation had been: 'You can
an anxiety without associations. The cata- only talk to me about one possible father
strophic character of this anxiety could be who makes you suffer, and yet you seek him
mitigated only by listening to the analyst's out'. We thus have three versions of the
voice, because, in thus confirming that the interpretation: the one 1 actually gave, the
analyst was alive, the patient herself could one the patient heard and the one she later
then feel psychically alive. After a time, the attributed to me. This last version, created
analyst was able to incorporate this meaning by her, would in fact have been a better
into an interpretation. formulation than my own.
A repetitive theme that was difficult to By thus returning to this point, the patient
work through appeared in L's discourse. It enabled me to understand that her listening
concerned situations in which her father made to the interpretation had differed from my
everyone around him unhappy. The only formulation of it. 1 now realised that the
way to avoid this unhappiness was to keep interpretive cycle did not end with my in-
out of the father's way, but this in tum terpretation, but should have included at
aroused painful feelings in the patient. L least the question: 'How has the patient
sought to establish contact with her father, listened to my interpretation?' This question,
resulting in a renewal of the conflict and of formulated within myself, would have initi-
the unhappiness. There was nothing to be ated a cycle essential to the analysis. It might
done; that was how her father was. L con- then have occurred to me that the cata-
tinued to complain of the unhappiness gen- strophic anxiety resulted from her reinter-
erated by her father, while at the same time pretation of the interpretation. 1 might have
trying to get close to him. questioned myself about the meaningful con-
1 formulated an interpretation intended text in which L had listened to the interpre-
to take account of all these repetitive situ- tation, because 1 needed to understand this
ations and to link the unhappiness with an context in order to put her nameless anxiety
intrapsychic conflict. 1 tried to get the patient into words.
and myself to wonder who this analyst was 1 do not know whether 1 could have
who was listening to the patient's complaints. helped her to overcome this anxiety, but 1
However, the interpretation did not yield the should have intervened at least once more,
expected result. saying, for example, 'I wonder what you
The interpretation was as follows: 'You heard in the interpretation that aroused so
can only talk to me about one possible father much anxiety in you, beyond what 1 actually
who makes you suffer, and yet you seek him said', or 'I believe that a catastrophic mean-
out'. The patient remained silent and was ing lies hidden in my interpretation'.
gradually seized with catastrophic anxiety. At the time, however, I considered that
She was unable to say, either in that session an interpretation ceased to be evaluated once
or in subsequent ones, what had caused it. it had been given. This does not mean that
It was only some years later that she was 1 saw my interpretation as 'the Truth'; 1 in
able to remember this session in the follow- fact thought, and still do think, that an
ing terms: 'Do you remember that session interpretation is a hypothesis. But 1 had not
when you told me that 1 could only talk understood that every interpretation under-
about my father when he made me suffer? goes a transformation in the patient's mind,
Now 1 understand that 1 thought you meant: wrought by its unconscious context. 1 had
"Forget your father, because he only makes not yet understood that, in interpreting, 1
you suffer". It was as if my mother were was anticipating a meaning that would be
winning again. What made me despair was revised retroactively and that 1 would need
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'LISTENING TO LISTENING' 671

to exercise a function of listening combining another text, which was her own creation.
this two-fold process of anticipation and In other words, L was now able to compare
retroactive (nachtriiglich) revision. two different unconscious meaningful contexts,
Let us now turn to the work of recon- one bound up with the identification with the
struction of L's history performed in the mother and the other liberated from this iden-
years between the first and second sessions. tification.
We shall discover that my interpretation had This brings us to an essential but difficult
touched upon many condensed and contra- point. The key moment (which opens the way
dictory meanings connected with the pa- to change) being that of disidentification with
tient's history. the mother's mode of psychic functioning, that
Firstly, although physically present, the mode of functioning must be explored.
father had been absent from the patient's I had intended to interpret an oedipal
psychic universe owing to his conflict with conflict. In the transference, however, L had
the mother. According to the mother, he listened to my interpretation not as an in-
had never reconciled himself to the fact that terpretation but as an opinion expressed by
a girl had been born and not a boy. In her the mother. Unlike an oedipal mother who
unconscious, the patient had been doubly would have laid an effective taboo on L's
rejected; she was represented both by her erotic relationship with her father, the dis-
mother, who had not been worthy of retain- course used by this mother, whom we had
ing the father's love, and by herself, for what just discovered, knew nothing of contradic-
she was. The father had taken no interest tion and rejected the logic of 'either/or'.
in his daughter, who in turn believed that This mother's words, within L's mind, de-
because of her 'error of gender', her being prived her of any access to the father.
a girl, she had been unable to 'mend' the This form of expression was governed by
couple formed by her parents. a special type of logic, characteristic of the
Why did we have to wait so long before primary process, which I shall call the 'logic
the patient could find the words to speak of the copper kettle'. This phrase is based
about the catastrophic anxiety triggered by on an example given by Freud of the mode
my interpretation? If I had listened to how of functioning of the primary process. All
L listened to the interpretation and then arguments, including mutually contradictory
intervened in one of the forms mentioned ones, came together to deprive L of her
above, perhaps things would have been dif- father.
ferent. However, let us examine what actually Freud presents the following joke about
happened, with a view to drawing universally a kettle:
valid conclusions.
It will be recalled that, according to my A. borrowed a copper kettle from B. and after he
hypothesis, the patient speaks and listens in had returned it was sued by B. because the kettle
accordance with a specific type of identifi- had now a big hole in it which made it unusable.
cation. When disidentification occurs, the pa- His defence was: First, I never borrowed a kettle
tient changes his way of listening to the at all; secondly, the kettle had a hole in it already
interpretation. when I got it from him; and thirdly, I gave him
With hindsight, I believe that what enabled back the kettle undamaged (1905, p. 62).
L to begin the process of disidentification
was the working through of her unconscious Freud describes this as 'an excellent example
identifications with her mother's mode of of the purely comic effect of giving free play
functioning. The interpretation she had to the unconscious mode of thought. This
heard through her identification with her mutual cancelling-out by several thoughts,
mother could begin to be compared with each of which is in itself valid, is precisely
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672 HAYDEE FAIM BERG

what does not occur in the unconscious ... or as an explicit source of conflict during
there is accordingly no such thing as an the sessions.
"either-or", only a simultaneous juxtaposi- In now observing the style of my inter-
tion' (p. 205). pretation, I discover in it some aspects which
L had unconsciously identified with the the patient was able to relate to the mother's
mother's 'logic of the copper kettle', in which 'logic of the copper kettle', and so I consider
there was no such thing as 'either/or'. And that it was not a good interpretation. I find
when disidentification began, L was able to that the 'and yet' was already a mistake,
understand that she had been listening to my compounded by the words 'you seek him
interpretation within this logic, as if I had out'. After all, in a system where words are
used incompatible arguments that came to- equivalent to deeds, the interpretation is re-
gether to prevent her from thinking about her interpreted by the patient in the imperative
father and to deprive her of him. mood: 'Abandon your father! Stop searching
I noted at the beginning that in my view for him!'-as if an action were being de-
the interpretation had failed. I can now say manded.
that, in the way I formulated the interpre- From the point of view of the patient's
tation, I had unwittingly used a similar style4 listening, it seems to me that, encouraged
to the mother's, and that this probably con- by my formulation, L heard in the interpre-
tributed to the failure of the interpretation. tation all the arguments used by the mother
Let us analyse the 'logic of the copper to expel the father: in the initial reinterpre-
kettle' from three different points of view: tation, 'Forget your father because he makes
that of the mother's discourse; that of my you suffer', the mother's words are super-
formulation ('you can only talk to me about imposed on the analyst's, making the latter
one possible father who makes you suffer, say: 'Stop suffering!'; the patient can thus
and yet you seek him out'); and that of L's imagine that the analyst is using psychoana-
initial reinterpretation of it ('forget your fa- lytic arguments with the sole object of de-
ther because he only makes you suffer'). priving her of the father: 'Do not be a
Three aspects of this mother logic oper- masochist, abandon your father'; a further
ating in L's psychic reality (as reconstructed component of the mother's discourse appears
in the analysis) can be distinguished: (i) It in the restriction to the effect that words
contained incompatible elements that caused cannot say anything other than what they
the daughter to place herself in unhappy have already said once and for all, compel-
situations which at root corresponded (accor- ling L to place herself in a situation of
ding to our reconstruction) to the mother's unhappiness which at root corresponds to
psychic reality. (ii) Words were equivalent the mother's psychic reality; and finally, in
to deeds and showed that the daughter's fate saying 'You can only talk to me about ... "
was already sealed; the patient therefore did I use an interpretive style in which I deprive
not consider that the words might mean the patient of the only way she has of
anything other than what had already been speaking about this father in her current
said once and for all (by the mother and, psychic reality, anticipating a possibility that
as we shall see, by the analyst in the trans- she does not yet have.
ference). (iii) This mode of expression did By virtue of all these aspects, the inter-
not appear manifestly in the patient's words, pretation is listened to as an inexorable repe-

4 From a different point of view in which psy- psychopathology. He suggested the concept of sty-
choanalysis is linked to communications theory and listic complementarity to connect the patient's char-
linguistics, Liberman (1970) exhaustively studied the acteristic discourse with the effective interpretive
style of the patient's discourse and its relation to mode of expression of the analyst.
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'LISTENING TO LISTENING' 673

nnon: 'Your father is absent yet again'. father (in her psychic reality) is one about
At this moment the interpretation may be whom she cannot speak to the mother. The
said to have failed to transcend the trans- patient has created the text of what in my
ference repetition, as well as in the function opinion ought to have been my interpreta-
of including the father and, symbolically, the tion.
analyst. This is due to the linking of the Who was the analyst in the transference
mother's discourse, present in the patient's during the first session? What type of trans-
psychic reality, with the particular style of ference triggered the catastrophic anxiety?
the interpretation. These questions can be answered only ret-
Thinking now in terms of the function of roactively, when the patient is able to say
'listening to listening', we can say that I how she heard my interpretation. In this
heard the catastrophic anxiety with which case the interpretation and the transference
the patient responded to my interpretation. assume a retroactive meaning.
My interpretation probably deprived the pa- When we realise that what the patient
tient of the only way she had of relating to heard was 'Forget your father, because he
the father: namely, suffering. At that time, only makes you suffer', it also becomes clear
L had no other way of psychic functioning that the analyst in the transference was the
that would have enabled her to get close to mother. She was not any mother, but that
a father who would make her happy.' As a specific mother in L's psychic reality, a mother
result of the interpretation, the patient felt with whom no oedipal rivalry was possible
utterly deprived of the link with her father because she had managed to exclude the father
and perhaps also, in consequence, of any radically (and not only the oedipal father)
link with me. The catastrophic anxiety with and to occupy every space. Hence the patient's
. 6
which L responded to my interpretation was d esperation.
due to the radical elimination of any link. When she eventually realises that 'she only
Let us now examine the other two versions spoke about her father when he made her
of the interpretation. unhappy', the nature of the transference has
The analyst said: 'You can only talk to changed. The patient is in a position to
me about one possible father who makes analyse the fact that the relationship of un-
you suffer, and yet you seek him out. The happiness with the father can now be seen
'and yet' attempts to bring out the ambiva- as a symptom, the particular form assumed
lence and to discover who is the analyst to by her oedipal conflict.
whom the patient addresses her words. The transference relationship can also be
Years later, the patient says: 'Do you inferred from the way the patient addresses
remember that session when you told me the analyst: 'Do you remember that ... you
that I could only speak about my father had told me that ... ' In addressing the
when he made me suffer?' analyst, L is referring to a third term, the
In creating a new interpretation featuring interpretation she remembered, which con-
the word 'when', the patient is showing that stitutes her own transference history. She
she acknowledges that she now has at her creates a transformation, 'when', in recog-
disposal 'another possible father' and another nising that she now has at her disposal
language for her psychic reality. This new another possible father and another possible

5 Because I wish to concentrate on the function 6 At this point it becomes clear that this analysis
of 'listening to listening', I am here disregarding the cannot be equated to that of a literary text. Our
narcissistic dimension (which is particularly active form of analysis concerns a patient with his anxiety,
in this example), which I called the narcissistic di- the history of his identifications, the history of the
mension of the Oedipus configuration in the French transference and many other dimensions.
text of 1981.
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674 HAYDEE FAIMBERG

language to refer to him. 'When' indicates occur to her conscious mind. This being the
the level of rivalry with the mother. case, it is readily understandable how diffi-
The patient can now accept the interpre- cult it was for K to acknowledge what she
tation as a form of discourse that makes the really wanted.
father psychically accessible again. Her father always appeared as a distant
figure who had no contact with her (or with
the mother). 'He was a real Robespierre,
ANOTHER VIGNETTE always cutting off people's heads', said K.
Let us see how this head-cutting father ap-
In her first interview, K complained of pears in a session.
intellectual inhibitions and spoke to me in 'You interpreted to me yesterday that I
a psychoanalytic jargon that appeared to claimed to feel only love for M [the wife of
convey her idea of 'what an analysis ought a friend], but that my slip showed that I
to be like'. This language, 'translated from also feel hostile towards her.'
the analytic', was interposed between us like She is very annoyed with me. The hostility
a screen. K did not give me an impression appears in the transference. I wait.
of helplessness but looked at me with a 'It is true that, when I hid so many things
certain defiance. During the first year, her from X, I was castrating him ... But at least
manner of speaking became one of the focal he listened to me, unlike my father, the
points of our work. She spoke to me in a dreaded Robespierre, who never listened to
hard, mechanical, cutting voice; the terms me or took any notice of me.'
she used were predictable; and the distance It seems to me that she heard the inter-
and inauthenticity of her words confirmed pretation she mentioned as a violent attack,
my initial impression of a barrier, which as if I had not been listening to her: an
excluded something that might be of value analogue of the father, who perhaps cuts off
to her from the communication with me. K people's heads ... I continue to wait.
said that she could not speak about certain With an object I cannot see, K begins to
things because, if she did, it would be like make a metallic noise that punctuates her
a transgression. words: CLICK I regard this as a sympto-
Surprisingly, she one day associated my matic act (reminiscent of that of Dora). I
interpretations concerning her anxiety about wonder what relation this noise bears to her
occupying 'secret places' with the fact that words and I listen as if to two interlaced
she had never had a room of her own. musical themes.
Although the family lived in a large house, 'I remember this woman with whom I
K had always slept in her parents' bedroom. had an interview for a job ... CLICK ... she
She had never thought that this might be a had forgotten me ... CLICK ... I decided to
problem. When she was 5, her father had seduce her instead of showing her how an-
moved to another bedroom. From then on, noyed I was at her having forgotten me ...
K had excitedly waited for the time when CLICK ... so I indicated to her that she was
her mother would invite her to share her very important to me ... CLICK ... I suppose
bed. Describing this situation to me, K's I put on an air of modesty for that reason
voice was full of emotion and betrayed un- ... so that she should feel sorry for me ...
wonted passion. Plainly, K was for the first CLICK ... I think it was a way of getting
time sharing with me her secret garden and into her bed [thus seductively alluding to a
showing me that she could obtain what she previous interpretation of mine] ... CLICK
wanted only in transgression. Only the trans- ... I think that good questions have indirect
gressive pleasure appeared; the painful idea answers, that work mainly through good
that she had no legitimate place did not associations ... CLICK .., I then had another
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'LISTENING TO LISTENING' 675

interview with the boss ... CLICK '" he was was the most perfect and most seductive
very nice, but I was afraid that he would person in the world.'
cut off my head as my father always did ... (She describes how she sees her mother's
CLICK ... (silence).' sexuality, and her own. Her voice then
Analyst: 'Yes, for a while now I have changes and takes on a more cutting, hard
been hearing the noise of the guillotine ... ' and mechanical tone.)
In theoretical terms, K may be said to be 'My father never paid me any attention.
unconsciously identified with her head-cut- My four brothers thought I was clinging ...
ting father. Moreover, this identification is And my mother ... she too never devoted a
audible at this point in the session. Retro- minute of her time to me ... except for her
actively, I can listen to her hard, metallic, precious time in bed ... but she never stopped
cutting voice as equivalent to 'cutting off to listen to me ... to find out what I was
people's heads'. feeling or thinking. You know, I never knew
Patient: 'What? (surprise, silence). Oh, now what my mother was thinking. She was so
I see ... the noise I was making with the clasp false, so conventional, so seductive, that I
of my handbag! The guillotine (contemptu- could never get in touch with her real feelings
ous tone): You could also have interpreted and thoughts.'
that it was the meeting of the two parts of (This is the first time she has spoken of
the clasp ... like a love relationship. (Her the falsity of her mother. K had often given
voice changes.) You are right, I did not me an impression of inauthenticity in the
realise what I was doing ... (silence). (Then, analysis. Then she returns to the subject of
in a cutting voice full of hate and defiance:) her sexuality.)
All right, if that is how it is, I shall never 'All she wanted from me was a seductive
again try to get a job!' appearance, as if what was inside, what a
Analyst: 'Since a head has been cut off, person feels or thinks, did not matter. If she
you feel tempted to share with me an inter- had only taken the trouble to convey to me
pretation of what we once said the interview what she was thinking, instead of offering
meant for you. And since instead I spoke me only her body contact, which was so
of the noise, does this mean that I am cutting exciting ... Well, I think my father was also
off your head?' partly to blame. He was incapable of for-
She did not say yes, but the tone of her giving, but always cutting off people's heads.
voice changed in the last few minutes of the Perhaps what my mother did was unforgiv-
session. able.'
Let us now hear what K says later, at (She says what she thinks about this ques-
another point in her analysis. tion.)
'Yesterday when I left, I felt very moved 'But it was not only a matter of forgiving
... For the first time I felt intelligent. I know or not forgiving. Instead of forgiving, my
that I can be foolish. But yesterday I had father cut off the relationship with his wife,
the new feeling of being intelligent. It is and ceased to be a husband. A few sessions
fantastic, exciting and moving.' ago, you said I could ask my friend to forgive
K is speaking in a soft voice, full of me, because I had been able to forgive my-
emotion, which I would describe as 'round', self. I was always so arrogant towards her
as opposed to her 'cutting' voice. ... It was very good that you recognised
'It is very important for me to have ques- that ... '
tioned the idea that my mother is perfect, (Her voice changes again, back to its
incapable of making a mistake, as I have cutting and metallic form, full of hate.)
always told you. None of us could see her 'In the old days I would have let myself
differently. I always consideredthat my mother be cut into tiny pieces rather than confess
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terms.pep-web.org).

676 HAYDEE FAIMBERG

and express any regret. I always lied. (Si- interprets on different levels of meaning.
lence.) Now I should like you to tell me Again, the narcissistic transference becomes
what you think and to say whether my analysable provided that it is listened to. 7 I
associations are correct ... ' (silence). shall leave these matters aside and confine
(This is a typical situation, in which she myself here to drawing the conclusions ap-
tries to make me say something; her voice plicable to a single standpoint, that of lis-
takes on the cutting tone, full of hate.) tening to the fate of the interpretation and
Analyst: 'It must be hard for you to ac- its connection with the concept of Nachtriig-
commodate a new situation inside yourself. lichkeit.
You were forging links between your ideas An interpretation entails at least two logi-
and your words, thinking, having new feel- cal phases of understanding, the first incum-
ings ... and suddenly your voice changes. It bent upon the analyst and the second upon
is as if you now wanted to force me to say the patient. The analyst anticipates a meaning
something particular so as to make us share on the basis of the transference history, and
the same opinion, the same bed. Perhaps this also involves his countertransference po-
now, at the end of the session, you are sition. By virtue of a complex constellation
seeking a particular contact, trying to obtain of factors, the analyst partly chooses the
certain words as if they were bodily contact.' formulation and is partly led to it.
The patient's tone of voice changes again The patient speaks and listens in accord-
as she says reflectively: 'Perhaps I can now ance with his unconscious identifications, as
start thinking that I can do without ... this a result of which he reinterprets the analyst's
interpretations. This hypothesis leads us to
see misunderstanding as the royal road to
the discovery of these identifications.
CONCLUSIONS In addition to the meaning opened up by
the interpretation and the reattribution of
If my proposed dialectical concept of time, meaning to it by the patient, there is a third
in which a text retroactively takes on a logical phase, that of comparison of the two
meaning in accordance with a specific con- forms of expression, which leads both to the
text, is applied to the reading of this paper, retroactive sense of the interpretation and
each reader may perhaps draw different con- to understanding of the unconscious identi-
clusions according to his particular psycho- fication. In this phase the analyst is able to
analytic culture. I have presented here a formulate a reinterpretation that takes ac-
number of interrelated themes, so that it is count of this new sense.
not easy to predict the resonances that will The function of listening to listening has
be aroused in each reader by them individu- another consequence: in listening to how the
ally and in combination. analyst has heard him, the patient gradually
However, I should not like this idea to acquires the capacity to listen to himself.
leave us in an ambiguous position. Although In this way, we may hope to overcome
some of this paper's conclusions are open- the dilemma that would arise if we were to
ended, that does not mean that it lacks a ask who is right, the analyst or the patient.
precise objective. By the function of 'listening to listening', we
My principal justification for the concept try to tune into the speaking of the uncon-
of 'listening to listening' is that the patient scious and of each of its vicissitudes.
---------- - - -

7 Because this abbreviated version of my paper ined in 1981 and subsequently in 1985, 1989 and
does not consider in detail the problem of narcissism 1992), certain conclusions relevant to that aspect have
and its connection with the oedipal conflict (exam- been omitted.
Copyrighted Material. For use only by StockholmUni. Reproduction prohibited. Usage subject to PEP terms & conditions (see
terms.pep-web.org).

'LISTENING TO LISTENING' 677

TRANSLATIONS OF SUMMARY angefiihrt, die zeigen, wie der Patient aus einer Position
spricht und zuhort, die von seinen unbewuBten Iden-
L'auteur lie la fonction de l'ecoute analytique au tifikationen bestimmt ist, und diese auch dazu fiihren,
concept de Nachtriiglichkeit de Freud, qu'elle definie daB er die Deutungen des Analytikers und sein Schwei-
comme l'attribution retroactive de signification plutot gen umdeutet. Indem der Analytiker darauf'hort, wie
que comme simple action deferree, et, de leur combi- der Patient seinen Deutungen neue Bedeutungen zu-
naison, elle en tire la notion d'ecoute de l'ecoute, Elle weist, kann er die unbewuBten Identifikationen des
propose une conception dialectique du temps oil I'in- Patienten aufdecken und dadurch gemeinsam mit dem
terpretation comprend trois phases logiques qui in- Patienten den ProzeB seelischer Veranderung fordern.
combent respectivement aI'analyste, au patient et aux Die Autorin meint, daB es mit dieser Funktion des
deux. Elle presente deux cas cliniques aI'aide desquels Horens aufdas Zuhoren moglich ist, das Dilemma, ob
elle montre comment Ie patient parle et ecoute a partir der Analytiker mit seinen Deutungen oder der Patient
d'une position qui est dictee par ses identifications mit seinen Umdeutungen recht hat, zu iiberwinden.
inconscientes qui font aussi en sorte qu'il re-interprete
les interpretations de I'analyste et ses silences. En etant La autora relaciona la escucha analitica con el
al'ecoute des significations que Ie patient re-attribue concepto freudiano de Nachtriiglichkeit, definiendolo
a ses interpretations, I'analyste peut decouvrir les como atribuci6n retroactiva de significado y no como
identifications inconscientes du patient et, avec Ie pa- simple acci6n diferida; de esa relaci6n deriva el con-
tient, faciliter par la Ie processus du changement psy- cepto de 'escucha de la escucha'. Propone una concep-
chique. L'auteur soutient que par la fonction d'ecoute cion dialectica del tiempo donde la interpretaci6n
de l'ecoute, il est possible de depasser Ie dilemme de incluye tres momentos 16gicos que conciernen, respec-
savoir qui a raison, si I'analyste avec son interpreta- tivamente, al analista, al paciente y a ambos. En dos
tion ou Ie patient avec sa reinterpretation. ejemplos clinicos pone de manifiesto que el paciente
habla y escucha desde una posici6n determinada por
Die Autorin stellt eine Verbindung her zwischen sus identificaciones inconscientes en virtud de las cual-
dem analytischen Zuhoren und Freuds Konzept der es reinterpreta las interpretaciones y los silencios del
Nachtraglichkeit, das sie als nachtragliche Zuweisung analista. La escucha de la reinterpretaci6n a que el
von Bedeutung und nicht nur als aufgeschobene Hand- paciente somete las interpretaciones permite que el
lung definiert. Aus der Kombination der beiden ge- analista descubra las identificaciones inconscientes
langt sie zu der Vorstellung von einem Horen auf das del paciente y facilite el proceso de cambio psiquico.
Zuhoren, Sie schlagt eine dialektische Konzeption Por otra parte, la 'escucha de la escucha' permite
von Zeit vor, nach der das Deuten drei logische Phasen resolver el dilema de quien tiene raz6n, si el analista
beinhaltet, die jeweils dem Analytiker, dem Patienten con su interpretaci6n 0 el paciente con su reinterpre-
und beiden zufallen. Zwei klinische Beispiele werden taci6n.

REFERENCES

FAIMBERG, H. (1981). Une des difficultes de I'ana- unicativa, proceso psicoanalitico. Buenos Aires:
lyse: la reconnaissance de l'alterite. Rev. franc. Galerna, 1970, Vol. 1.
psychanal., 45: 1351-1367. MODELL, A. (1990). Other Times, Other Realities.
FREUD, S. (1905). Jokes and their Relation to the Cambridge, Mass: Harvard Univ. Press.
Unconscious. s.s. 8. PICHON-RIVIERE, E. (1957). Seminars given in Bue-
- - (1950). The Origins of Psycho-Analysis. SiE, nos Aires. (Unpublished.)
I, letter of 6 December 1896 to Fliess. THOMA, H. & CHESHIRE, N. (1991). Freud's concept
LAPLANCHE, J. & PONTALIS, J.-B. (1983). The Lan- of Nachtriiglichkeit and Strachey's 'deferred ac-
guage of Psycho-Analysis, trans. D. Nicho1son- tion': trauma, constructions and the direction of
Smith. London: Hogarth. causality. Int. Rev. Psychoanal., 3: 401-445.
LIBERMAN, D. (1970). Lingiiistica, interaccion com-

Haydee Faimberg Copyright © Institute of Psycho-Analysis, London, 1996

15, rue Buffon
75005 Paris
(MS. received 4/12/96)
(Translated MS. accepted 23/5/96)
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