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Dictionary:
si·lence (sī'ləns)  |
[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin silentium, from silēns, silent-, present participle of silēre, to be silent.]
| Thesaurus: silence |
noun
verb
| Antonyms: silence |
Definition: absence of sound, speech
Antonyms: clamor, communication, noise, sound, talk
v
Definition: make or be quiet
Antonyms: amplify, be noisy, communicate, make noise, talk
| Psychoanalysis: Silence |
Silence in the course of an analytical session, whether it comes from the patient or the analyst, has constantly posed problems for the theorists of psychoanalytical technique.
According to certain authors, silence is to be interpreted as a resistance (Karl Abraham, Sándor Ferenczi, Sigmund Freud, Wilhelm Reich, Otto Fenichel, Anna Freud, Stephen Weissman). Edward Glover was the first to emphasize the counter-transferential positions involved in it, and noted the role of the super-ego. Karl Abraham, Sándor Ferenczi, Edmund Bergler, Ella Sharpe, Robert Fliess and Kata Levy make of it a particular mode of instinctual expression, while Rudolph Loewenstein and Leo S. Loomie approach it as the translation of a distortion of the ego. Silence has also been studied as an object relation by Jacob Arlow (defense or discharge) and by Ralph Greenson (resistance or communication), as an object relation properly speaking (Carel Van der Heide, Meyer A. Zeligs) and as a particular mode of object choice (Robert Barande).
According to Freud ("The Dynamics of Transference," 1912b, p. 101): "If a patient's free associations fail, the stoppage can invariably be removed by an assurance that he is being dominated at the moment by an association which is concerned with the doctor himself or with something concerned with him. As soon as this explanation is given, the stoppage is removed, or the situation is changed from one in which the associations fail into one in which they are being kept back." And elsewhere, in "The Theme of the Three Caskets" (1913f, p. 295): "in dreams dumbness is a common representation of death." He also says in "Remembering, Repeating and Working-Through" (1914g, p. 150) that when the patient "is silent and declares that nothing occurs to him," this, "of course, is merely a repetition of a homosexual attitude which comes to the fore as a resistance against remembering anything," while Sophie Morgen-stern, in "A Case of Psychogenous Muteness" (1927), gave us the first work known in France to use drawing, in place of speaking, as a method of child analysis.
Other authors have added to these views: silence is "a state of restoration of primary narcissism, it is the realization of desire" enabling one to "re-experience narcissistic omnipotence" (Pierre Luquet, Béla Grunberger), or a sign of "good maternal care that provides the ego with a silent but vital support" (Donald W. Winnicott). The sense of the ego's inability to mask instincts from the super-ego in discourse may explain the very frequent silences that are encountered in child therapy. In the analytical couple, of whatever kind, "the support of the amorous exchange as the patient lives it is indeed silence [. . .] It's within the crucible of the therapist's silence that the patient's spoken words will be revealed as fantasy" (Robert Barande).
Luisa de Urtubey, in her report on the "work of the counter-transference" (1994), sets out the theories of a great number of authors who discuss silence. For her, "silence—as well as speech, its interpretations, its emphases, the links it weaves—is the expression of counter-transference in this analytical space and at this precise moment." Pearl Lombard expresses an aptitude for the silent maternal counter-transference: "speech is silver, silence is golden" ("The Silence of the Mother, or: Twenty Years Later", 1986). She remarks that "a succession of images wells up in the analyst's mind as she or he accompanies a silent patient: astonishment, anxious questioning, an experience of depression and an obligation to imagine if we are to survive, but also if our patients are to survive psychologically. There are long periods in which the exchange between patient and analyst, although it is very intense, happens in both directions, in the mysterious depth of silence. The way these analyses evolve depends to a large extent on the existence of counter-transferential movements that are sufficiently intense to arouse representations of highly personal images or things, related to the analyst's narcissism—representations that can invigorate the treatment only insofar as they can be linked and bound to a moment in the patient's history, either in narrative form, or in the shape of images visualized on the basis of that narrative. Thus the vital bridge between word representations and thing representations is created or recreated in the analyst himself or herself. This bridge is highlighted by interpretation, the invigorating effect of which fulfils the silence and makes it speak."
The evaluation of "silence" is possible only if each case—patient and analyst—is taken on its merits.
Bibliography
Barande, Robert. (1989). Parcours d'un psychanalyste, son esthétique et son éthique. Paris: Pro-Edi.
Freud, Sigmund. (1912b). The dynamics of transference. SE, 12: 97-108.
——. (1913f). The theme of the three caskets. SE, 12: 289-301.
——. (1914g). Remembering, repeating and working-through (Further recommendations on the technique of psycho-analysis II). SE, 12: 145-156.
Green, André. (1979). Le silence du psychanalyste. Topique, 23, p. 5-25.
Lombard, Pearl. (1986). Le silence de la mère ou vingt ans après. Bulletin de la Société de psychanalyse de Paris, 9, p. 33-48.
Nasio, Jean-David. (1987). Le Silence en psychanalyse. Paris: Rivages.
Urtubey, Luisa de. (1994). Le travail de contre-transfert. Bulletin de la Société de psychanalyse de Paris, 31, p. 147-148.
—PEARL LOMBARD
| Word Tutor: silence |
Silence is sometimes the best answer.
— The Dalai Lama.
| Quotes About: Silence |
Quotes:
"Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation. Tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster his ego. His anxiety subsides. His inhuman void spreads on like a gray vegetation."
- Jean Arp
"From politics it was an easy step to silence."
- Jane Austen
"Silence is the virtue of fools."
- Francis Bacon
"An inability to stay quiet is one of the most conspicuous failings of mankind."
- Walter Bagehot
"It is more noble by silence to avoid an injury than by argument to overcome it."
- Francis Beaumont
"I shall state silences more competently than ever a better man spangled the butterflies of vertigo."
- Samuel Beckett
See more famous quotes about Silence
| Wikipedia: Silence |
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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2009) |
Silence is the relative or total lack of audible sound. By analogy, the word silence may also refer to any absence of communication, even in media other than speech.[1]
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Silence in social interaction is the absence of speech. Silence in this arena can be divided into three categories (Bruneau, 1973): mental, social, or both. These are defined according to time, context, and perception.
In discourse analysis, brief absences of speech mark the boundaries of prosodic units used by speakers. Silence in speech can be the result of hesitation, stutters, self-correction, or the deliberate slowing of speech for the purpose of clarification or processing of ideas. These are short silences. Longer pauses in language occur in interactive roles, reactive tokens, or turn-taking.
According to cultural norms, silence can be interpreted as positive or negative. For example, in a Christian Methodist faith organization silence and reflection during the sermons might be appreciated by the congregation, while in a Southern Baptist church, silence might mean disagreement with what is being taught, or perhaps disconnectedness from the congregated community.
Placing the index finger in front of closed lips is the most widely recognized gesture of silence. The gesture can be used to demand silence without raising one's own voice. The rose, sometimes depicted clasped by or on top of closed lips, is another well-recognized symbol of silence stemming from various mythologies.
In the Western cultures, it is sometimes difficult to interpret the message being sent by a person being silent (i.e. not speaking). It can mean anger, hostility, disinterest, or any number of other emotions. Because of this, people in Western cultures feel uneasy when one party is silent and will usually try their best to fill up the silence with small talk.
The Western Apaches use silence during times of uncertainty or anger in the way most people in Western cultures would be vocal. The goal is to observe and anticipate what the other party is going to do.
In Joy Kogawa's novel Obasan, silence is a symbol of victimization, a sign of the overbearing memories that burden us. Its characters have been silenced by repression.
Music inherently depends on silence in some form or another to distinguish other periods of sound and allow dynamics, melodies and rhythms to have greater impact. For example, most music scores feature rests denoting periods of silence.
Some composers take the use of silence in music to an extreme.4′33″ is an experimental musical work by avant-garde composer John Cage. It consists of just over four and a half minutes of silence. Though first performed on the piano, the piece was composed for any instrument or instruments and is structured in three movements. The length of each movement is not fixed by the composer, nor is the total length of the piece. The title of the piece should reflect the timings chosen, and could therefore be different at every performance. The modern performance tradition of 4′33″ is to keep the total duration fixed as at the first performance.
Argumentative silence is the rhetorical practice of saying nothing when an opponent in a debate would expect something to be said. Poorly executed, it can be very offensive, like refusing to answer a direct question. However, well-timed silence can completely throw an opponent and give the debater the upper hand.
An argument from silence (Latin: argumentum ex silentio) is an argument based on the assumption that someone's silence on a matter suggests ("proves" when a logical fallacy) that person's ignorance of the matter. In general, ex silentio refers to the claim that the absence of something demonstrates the proof of a proposition.
The right to silence is a legal protection enjoyed by people undergoing police interrogation or trial in certain countries. The law is either explicit or recognized in many legal systems. Violation of the right to quiet enjoyment is a common law tort.
A silent mind, freed from the onslaught of thoughts and thought patterns, is both a goal and an important step in spiritual development. Such "inner silence" is not about the absence of sound; instead, it is understood to bring one in contact with the divine, the ultimate reality, or one's own true self.[2] Many religious traditions imply the importance of being quiet and still in mind and spirit for transformative and integral spiritual growth to occur. In Christianity, there is the silence of contemplative prayer such as Centering prayer and Christian meditation; in Islam, there are the wisdom writings of the Sufis who insist on the importance of finding silence within. In Buddhism, the descriptions of silence and allowing the mind to become silent are implied as a feature of spiritual enlightenment. In Hinduism, including the teachings of Advaita Vedanta and the many paths of yoga, teachers insist on the importance of silence for inner growth. In some traditions of Quakerism (a branch of Christianity), silence is an actual part of worship services and a time to allow the divine to speak in the heart and mind.[3]
A common way to remember a tragic accident and to remember the victims or casualties of such an event is a commemorative moment of silence. This usually means one or more minutes of silence, in which one is supposed to not speak, but instead remember and reflect on the event. A commemorative silence may be held at a workplace, a school, and similar institutions. Sometimes a government will advertise a commemorative silence for a specific period at a specific time, which everybody is encouraged (but not forced) to honor. One such example is after the events of 9/11, and on its anniversary several years afterward, when many governments around the world announced 3 minutes of silence in respect of the victims of the event.
While in a city there is always the constant buzz of electronics and in the country side there is the wind blowing and the sound of yourself breathing. Complete silence is when not the smallest of sound is heard.
In labs, animals that have been subject to a total lack of noise have shown signs of behavioral changes and aggression[citation needed] (see Sensory deprivation).
The musician and composer, Antony Pitts, remarked that true absolute silence is virtually unattainable, and noted that the silence people usually speak of is normally what we think of as simple quiet, unless you're deaf. [4]
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Look up silence, taciturn, or quiet in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
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| Translations: Silence |
Dansk (Danish)
n. - stilhed, tavshed
v. tr. - bringe til tavshed
Nederlands (Dutch)
stilte, zwijgzaamheid, tot zwijgen brengen, het stilzwijgen opleggen
Français (French)
n. - silence
v. tr. - réduire au silence, faire taire
Deutsch (German)
n. - Schweigen, Stille, Geräuschlosigkeit
v. - jemanden zum Schweigen bringen, dämpfen
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - σιγή, σιωπή, αποσιώπηση, παρασιώπηση, εχεμύθεια
v. - (κατα)σιγάζω, επιβάλλω σιωπή, φιμώνω
Italiano (Italian)
far tacere, quiete, silenzio
Português (Portuguese)
n. - silêncio (m), esquecimento (m), sossego (m)
v. - silenciar, acalmar
Русский (Russian)
тишина, безмолвие, забвение, отсутствие сведений, заставить замолчать, утихомирить, преодолевать (сопротивление), заглушать
Español (Spanish)
n. - silencio
v. tr. - hacer callar, silenciar
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - tystnad, tysthet, tystlåtenhet
v. - tysta ned, få att tystna, få tyst på
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
沉默, 静寂, 无声, 使沉默, 使安静, 使哑口无言
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 沈默, 靜寂, 無聲
v. tr. - 使沈默, 使安靜, 使啞口無言
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 침묵, 소식 두절, 망각
v. tr. - 침묵시키다, 진정시키다, 죽이다
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 静けさ, 静寂, 沈黙, 無言, 黙っていること, 音信不通
v. - 黙らせる, 静かにさせる, 封じる
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) سكوت, صمت, سكون (فعل) يسكت
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - שקט, דומייה, שתיקה
v. tr. - השתיק, היסה, התקין משתקול ברובה או בצינור-פליטה
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| Nacht, Sacha Emanoel |
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