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[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin silentium, from silēns, silent-, present participle of silēre, to be silent.]
noun
verb
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
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
Silence is sometimes the best answer.
— The Dalai Lama.
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
Silence is a relative or total lack of sound. An environment with sound below 20 decibels is considered quiet or silent.
Silence in Social Interaciton; Functions, Meanings, and Interpretations.
Silence is noticed through the basic human need of social interaction; communication. Categorized into forms and functions, silence can fall into three distinct sections ( Bruneau, 1973). These categories describe instances either mental or social or a combination thereof, in which silence can be found and thereafter interpreted. First is the Psychological, second Interactive, and third is sociocultural. All of these are distinctly defined through time, context, and perception.
The physiological form of silence can be identified through momentary silences in communicative interaction like hesitation, stutters, self-correction, deliberate slowing of speech for the purpose of clarification or mental processing of ideas to elaborate on topics of discussion. This silence type is short and combines internal or metal (psychological) factors in to a physical form of external expression.
Interactive silence can be found within interpersonal context-that is interpersonal relationships along with the management and maintenance that relationships require. This category of silence is evident through interactive roles, reactive tokens, or turn-taking.
Lastly, there is the sociocultural framework of silences in which it can be found through the cultural communicative habits, that is , that communication is formed through cultural norms and that it follows the culturally defined patterns of social interaction. Through this silence can be interpreted as positive or negative, taking cultural acceptance of the silence within a given communicative situation into thought. Take religious cultures for example where a Christian Methodist faith organization might appreciate silence and reflection during the sermons, the congregation in a Southern Baptist church might consider silence to mean disagreement with what is being taught, or perhaps disconnectedness from the congregated community.
One widely recognized symbolic gesture of silence consists of a forefinger laid vertically across the lips. For the cultural misunderstanding that made Harpocrates an emblem of silence from Roman times, see Harpocrates.
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 which burden us. Its characters have been silenced by repression.
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
A silent mind, freed from the onslaught of thoughts and thought patterns, is both a goal and an important step in spiritual development. Inner silence is understood to bring one in contact with the divine or the ultimate reality of this moment. All 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 Quakerism, silence is an actual part of worship services and a time to allow the divine to speak in the heart and mind.
A common way to remember a tragic accident and to remember the victims or casualties of such an event is a commemorative 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 are encouraged (but not forced) to honor. One such example is after the events of 9/11, when many governments around the world announced 3 minutes of silence in respect of the victims of the event.
Prolonged silence can often affect a person's state of mind, causing them to hear things and talk to themselves to break the silence. Most people find silence uncomfortable, and to the extreme, unbearable. In modern society, especially in the western society, when people are meeting and talking to each other, people often start talking nonsense to skip moments of silence. People seem to have the same feeling all over the world, - however silence seems to be much more appreciated in the eastern world (China etc.) That is one of the reasons why some people seek answers in eastern religions. "Those who know do not speak; Those who speak do not know." (Lau Tzu)
Feelings of loneliness with uncomfortable silence is easier in early life, but most people have roughly the same experience throughout their whole life. Most people often have problems finding words to say, but also many people have no problem finding things to say, and might never have this feeling at all.
In labs, animals that have been subject to a total lack of noise have shown signs of behavioral changes and
aggression[citation needed] (see
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.[1]
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
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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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Antonyms. © 1999-2008 by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Psychoanalysis. International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis. Copyright © 2005 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Silence". Read more |
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