viewpoints, and paradigms in psychoanalytic music research
3.3 Metapsychological perspectives on music
The theoretical foundation and point of departure of psychoanalysis lies in the notion of unconscious psychic life. The concept of the “unconscious” means various things in various theories and types of research – consequently in music research, too. Freud (1957b [1915]: 181) coined the term metapsychology to indicate a “general theory” in psychoanalysis: a theory of the psychic appara-
tus at the highest level of abstraction. Accordingly, in the Freudian tradition, metapsychological viewpoints are addressed in order to differentiate the ways in ZKLFKSV\FKRDQDO\VLVWKHRUL]HVWKHXQFRQVFLRXVDQGLWVVLJQL¿FDQFHVFRSHDQG workings. Each viewpoint poses a different kind of question about unconscious psychic life, thereby emphasizing different aspects of the latter. All the view-
points may be said to form the totality of Freudian psychoanalytic understanding.
These viewpoints provide the “rules” of understanding psychical functioning. It may be said that metapsychology together with developmental psychology form the basic theory of psychoanalysis (Sandler et al 1997: 1, 5).22 By means of these viewpoints, the various functions and dimensions of music in the subject’s psy-
chic life can be outlined: how music is connected to personality and its uncon-
scious foundations. Further, metapsychology introduces concepts and notions that can be used as music-analytic tools.
I shall next discuss metapsychological points of view and their applications in music research.23 My point of departure is Freudian psychoanalytic theory, with emphasis on its methodology (rather than that of musicology). This means that the potential of psychoanalysis in music research is discussed via metapsy-
chological horizons, which theorize the unconscious dimension of subject and culture and which thereby invite various ways of understanding musical phe-
QRPHQD7KHTXHVWLRQLV:KDWDQGKRZGRHVPXVLFPHDQIRUWKHVXEMHFWIURP the point of view of the unconscious as theorized by psychoanalytic metapsy-
FKRORJ\" 7KLV DSSURDFK HOXFLGDWHV YDULRXV LPSRUWDQW EDVLF LGHDV SUHVXSSRVL-
tions, and starting points of psychoanalytic music research in general, which help XVWRFRQFHSWXDOL]HWKHPRUHVSHFL¿FVHPLRWLFDOSV\FKRDQDO\WLFIUDPHZRUNRI this study, too.
Though the idea of metapsychology derives from classic Freudian psycho-
22 Still, the individual’s psychical development is studied from metapsychological points of view, too. Sandler et al. (1997: 1) write that for “metapsychology” one might substitute psychoanalytic psychology, given all the advances made since Freud’s day. Neverthe-
less, metapsychology remains a useful and valid term. In addition to metapsychology and developmental psychology, the third essential part of the Freudian psychoanalytic theory is the theory of therapeutic method.
23 Metapsychological accounts of the functions of music include, for example, Kohut (1990 [1957]).
analysis, it has been importantly developed in the ego-psychological tradition.
Object-relation theories and Lacanian psychoanalysis, by contrast, have their own general theories (though they, too, may draw on classic accounts). The semi-
otically reformulated metapsychological survey undertaken here will later help in the understanding of poststructural and semiotical paradigms too. Unlike other surveys, mine emphasizes the centrality of the unconscious modality of meaning and subjectivity formation in every signifying practice.24
Classic Freudian psychoanalytic theory differentiates from three to four, and )UHXGLDQHJRSV\FKRORJLFDOWUDGLWLRQIURP¿YHWRVL[PHWDSV\FKRORJLFDOYLHZ-
SRLQWVGHSHQGLQJRQLI)UHXG¶VWRSRJUDSKLFDOPRGHOLVGLYLGHGLQWR³HDUO\´¿UVW and “late” (second). The early one is usually referred to as “the topographical viewpoint”, and the late as “the structural viewpoint”.25 The viewpoints are as IROORZV G\QDPLF HFRQRPLF GULYHHQHUJHWLF ¿UVW WRSRJUDSKLF structural26 (= second topography), 5) genetic (developmental), and 6) adaptive.
Numbers 1–3 were named by Freud;; the structural viewpoint was added later, after he formulated notions of the id, ego, and superego in 1923. The last two are additions developed in ego- and self-psychological traditions.27 (See Moore et al.
1990: 119–120;; Laplanche & Pontalis 1988: 126–130, 249–250, 449–453;; Tähkä 1970: 6–8;; :ULJKW±
I am adding a seventh metapsychological viewpoint: (7) the systemic. By this I refer to the semiotical viewpoint, which refers to the degree of the symbolic/
symbolization in a psychic process or representation. The systemic view outlines the binary logic of the two modalities of meaning, and emphasizes the impor-
tance of the (il)logic of the unconscious in every signifying act. The systemic point of view forms an essential point of departure in psychoanalytic semiot-
ics – alongside dynamic and economic viewpoints.28 It is to be understood as a 7KLVPRGL¿FDWLRQFRXOGEHVHHQDVDQDWWHPSWWRLQWHJUDWHSRVWVWUXFWXUDODQG/DFDQLDQ psychoanalysis to the Freudian metapsychological discussion, and thus bring it in line with the ego-psychological tradition. On the other hand, it offers broader framework for psychoanalytic semiotics than what Kristevan or Lacanian points of departure would do alone.
7KH¿UVWWRSRJUDSKLFDODQGVWUXFWXUDOFRQFHSWVDUHDOVRFDOOHG³PRGHOV´RU³WKHRULHV´
As Jukka Välimäki (private communication) points out, these two points of view have a special position in psychoanalytic theory, in that they represent Freud’s two central theoretical models. Some ego-psychological psychoanalysts even think that the structural PRGHOUHSODFHVWKH¿UVWWRSRJUDSKLFDOPRGHOQRWVRKHUH
26 The structural viewpoint is Freud’s term and does not refer to linguistic or Lacanian structuralism and semiotics.
27 The genetic viewpoint is an addition attributed to Heinz Hartmann, Ernst Kris, and Rudolph Loewenstein;; the adaptive viewpoint, to David Rapaport.
28 Lacan’s own “general theory” (”schemata” and other formalizations) forms a large branch of Lacanian exegetics not addressed in the present study. In my research, I use
PHWDSV\FKRORJLFDOPRGHOWKDWFODUL¿HV.ULVWHYD¶VFRQFHSWVRIWKHsubject-in-pro-
cess/on-trial and the text (music) as a dialectic of the semiotic and the symbolic.
As mentioned earlier (especially in Chap. 1), psychoanalytic semiotics empha-
sizes (1) the role of meaning production (discourse, text) in subjectivity, and (2) how meaning is formed by the cooperation of the logic of consciousness and of the unconscious.29 I thereby lay emphasis on early Freud, that is, from circa 1900–1915 (see Freud 1953 [1900] and 1960 [1901]), who by studying dreams, parapraxes, and jokes formulated rules that regulate the unconscious logic at ZRUNLQDOOVLJQL¿FDWLRQ
7KHV\VWHPLFYLHZSRLQWGHULYHVPRVWLPSRUWDQWO\IURP)UHXG¶V¿UVWWRSRJUD-
phy, which outlines the systems of unconscious, preconscious, and conscious, as well as the formal characteristics of the (il)logic of the unconscious. Unlike the ZD\VLQZKLFK)UHXG¶V¿UVWWRSRJUDSK\LVFRPPRQO\XQGHUVWRRGZHVKDOOQRW be too casual in differentiating between the nominal (systemic) and adjectival (descriptive) modes of conceiving the unconscious. In fact, this distinction is cru-
FLDOWRWKHVWXG\RIVLJQL¿FDWLRQ7KXVLQWKHPHWDSV\FKRORJLFDOIUDPHZRUNRI WKHSUHVHQWUHVHDUFK)UHXG¶V¿UVWWRSRJUDSK\LVDFWXDOO\GLYLGHGLQWZR³WKH degree of the consciousness” (term coined by Tähkä 1970: 7) and (7) “the sys-
temic”.30 This solution and terminology are supported by Freud’s (1957b [1915]
and 1958 [1912]) division of the “unconscious” into descriptive, dynamic, and systemic meanings in his metapsychological texts.
My account of metapsychological views synthesizes those of Laplanche and Pontalis (1988: 126–130, 249–250, 449–453), Moore et al. (1990: 119–120), 7lKNl±DQG:ULJKW±$UHPLQGHU0\SUHVHQWDWLRQ¿UVW follows classical Freudian theory ([1] dynamic and [2] economic viewpoints).
Then follows a PRGL¿FDWLRQ of one aspect of Freud’s early topography ([3] the notion of degrees of consciousness). There next follows a later model of mind by Freud, the so-called second topography ([4] the structural viewpoint). After that, the presentation turns to (post-)Freudian psychoanalysis as ego- and self-psycho-
logical traditions have further developed the classic metapsychology ([5] devel-
opmental and [6] adaptive viewpoints). Last comes (7) a systemic viewpoint GHULYHGIURP)UHXG¶VHDUO\PRGHORIPLQGFIWKH¿UVWWRSRJUDSK\DVDGDSWHGWR the present research and its framework of psychoanalytic semiotics.
1. The dynamic point of view considers mental operations as “forces” deriv-
ing from the drives and drive-based impulses;; among these are ego defenses, UHSUHVVLRQ LQKLELWLRQV RI VXSHUHJR FRQÀLFWV DQG FRQVLGHUDWLRQV UHODWHG WR
Lacanian ideas not in toto, but only as they serve my purposes.
29 Kristeva uses the expression meaning work to evoke Freud’s concept of dream work.
The same goes for my term, subjectivity work.
30 I am greatly in debt for discussions with Jukka Välimäki for this solution.
WKHRXWHUZRUOG3V\FKLFWHQVLRQVDQ[LHWLHVDQGFRQÀLFWVGHYHORSZKHQGULYH impulses stemming from bodily urges confront the demands of outer reality, i.e., the social order. From this viewpoint, “unconscious” refers to psychic material that is actively dissociated;; that is to say, access to consciousness is prohibited by repression that produces disturbing mental content.
In this perspective, music appears as resulting from, bringing forth, disturb-
LQJDQGZRUNLQJRXWWKHXQFRQVFLRXVFRQÀLFWVRISV\FKH+HUHOD\VWKHEDVLV of music’s therapeutic impact. Repressed wishes may, in music, be discharged via a substitute channel. The dynamic point of view also provides a theoretical perspective for studying what is repressed in music and why, in various musi-
cal manifestations ranging from genres, styles, compositions on up to musical tastes, ideologies of musicology, and various musico-psychological phenomena.
For example, take an obstinate melody that keeps playing in one’s mind or that suddenly pops up in the middle of another train of thought. Such a melody may be a disguised manifestation of a repressed idea, i.e., the return of the repressed in a musical form, which at the same time both reveals and hides (cf. Reik 1983 [1953]: 10;; see also, Ferenczi 1980 [1909]).
2. From the economic or energetic viewpoint one examines psyche and unconscious with the drive-energetic metaphors introduced by Freud. Sexuality and aggression are understood as forms of psychic energy. Other central con-
cepts are cathexis (a charged drive of energy), life and death drives (eros and thanatos), pleasure and reality principles, and narcissism31. The notion of “bind-
ing” included in the economic viewpoint relates so-called “mobile energy” to the primary process and pleasure principle, which together rule in the unconscious, and “bound energy” to the secondary process and reality principle, which rule in the consciousness. Language has been deemed the main binder of psychic energy. From the point of view of psychoanalytic semiotics, we see that all sig-
nifying practices (texts, discourses) are ways of binding the psychic energy that arises from drives, and transforming it into desire, into meaning work (subjectiv-
ity work), and into discourse.
In this framework, music can be studied as an outlet for tensions ensuing from drives, such as sexuality and aggression. It can be studied both as a binder and a releaser of these tensions. As a non-verbal discourse, music has been con-
sidered capable of effectively activating the mobility of psychic energy, thereby defusing tensions. Music has also been linked to pleasure-seeking, and it can be studied from the point of view of narcissism as well.
3. The degree of consciousnessFIWKH¿UVWWRSRJUDSK\WHOOVWKHSRVLWLRQRI a psychic process in its relation to the consciousness. The term “unconscious” is 31 Freud gives several accounts of narcissism, which can be understood in terms of the psychic economy, and of structural and developmental viewpoints.
used here as an adjective. One may ask, for example, if listening to music and the concomitant production and grasping of meanings take place at the conscious, preconscious, or unconscious level of mind. How and what kind of work is done unconsciously when one is making music, listening to it, when composing, danc-
LQJDQGPRUH"'RHVPXVLFPDNHXQFRQVFLRXVSV\FKLFFRQWHQWVFRQVFLRXV",IVR WKHQRQZKDWEDVLV"
4. The structural viewpoint refers to the model of psychic life that Freud formulated in 1923 (second topography;; Freud 1961a [1923]). It differentiates the psyche into three macro-structures of id, ego, and superego. The id, ego, and superego are aspects of psychical processes that describe how the mind operates LQFRQÀLFWHGVWDWHVDVWKH\DUHFDXVHGE\GULYHVDQGPRWLYHV,WLVDTXHVWLRQRI WKH VWUXFWXUDO WRWDOLW\ IRUPHG GH¿QLWLYHO\ DQG ¿QDOO\ LQ WKH 2HGLSDO VWDJH WKH superego does not take proper shape until the Oedipal complex is resolved. Still, the superego has earlier developmental forms, as do the id and ego (though opin-
ions and emphases about the matter differ greatly).32 The id is a compound of libidinal, sexual, and aggressive drive representations aroused by bodily urges.
It represents the pleasure-seeking side of psychic life. The superego ensues from the mind’s absorption of attitudes and values of “outside” demands (such as the parents, social rules, and taboos), aimed at taming drive-based, sexual, and aggressive tendencies. The superego is linked with moral rules, inhibitions, and social pressures, and it stands for the observing and punishing side of the psyche.
The ego refers to the operations of control and mastery of the self. It develops from the id, and it takes care of the subject’s relation to the outside world and social reality. The ego further regulates and stabilizes psychic life by building compromises between the demands of the drives and the outer world. It func-
tions as a mediator between id, superego, and outside world, and it differentiates inner and outer worlds from each other. A failure in this regulation leads to the development of anxiety.
32 The Oedipal complex is the network of the child’s loving and aggressive wishes toward her parents. In this network, the different-sex parent is esteemed as an object of sexual desire, while the same sex-parent is experienced as a rival and replacement. Freud links this complex to the phallic stage (age 2.5–6 years), but on the other hand, the Oedipal complex is a fundamental, unconscious structure of psyche, a nucleus of desire, repres-
sion, and sexual identity. (Laplanche & Pontalis 1988: 282–287.) In Lacan’s linguistic psychoanalysis, the entry into language is considered to be more important to the Oedipal complex than is the actual father;; with language the child enters into the realm of the symbolic (“the name of the father”). Both Freud’s and Lacan’s conceptions of the Oedi-
pus complex have been criticized by feminists because of the male (and heteronormative) perspective, attitude of patriarchy, and phallocentrism;; Guattari and Deleuze, on the other hand, view Freud’s and Lacan’s theories on this matter as conventional, repressive, and capitalistic.
On this view, the term “unconscious” often refers to the mental representation of the drive-base (id), but left untold is the position of the psychic process in rela-
WLRQWRFRQVFLRXVQHVVDQGGHJUHHRIWKHODWWHU7KHLGUHSUHVHQWVVROHO\WKH¿HOG of the (adjectivally) unconscious;; in contrast, both the ego and superego have conscious and unconscious sides. Defense mechanisms, for instance, belong to the (adjectivally) unconscious domain of the ego.
Psychoanalytic music research has relied greatly on structural concepts, espe-
cially in music therapy and music psychology drawing on ego- and self-psychol-
RJ\.RKXWKDVRIWHQEHHQPHQWLRQHGDVWKHPRVWFHQWUDO¿JXUHLQWKHRUL]LQJWKH id, ego, and superego functions of music. According to Kohut, in relation to the id, music functions as an emotional catharsis for releasing the tensions produced by repressed wishes, which the ego usually experiences as threatening. Also, music functions as a sublimation33 and transference phenomenon34. Certain sug-
gestive rhythms, for instance, may be unconsciously experienced as the release of sexual tensions, and at the same time as the consciousness is paying attention to other musical aspects, such as melodic variation. Kohut stresses that music may act upon the id-function in many ways, and not just music bearing the most manifestly sexual content, such as Ravel’s Bolero, for instance. (Kohut 1990 [1957]: 22–23.) In music, aspects of the id may wear many complex disguises.
In relation to the ego, Kohut thinks music appears as an activity of mastery and as a parallel for play (games) requiring a kind of psychic exertion. Kohut argues that, at the most archaic level – instancing the weaker psychic organiza-
tion of an infant – sounds produce anxiety and are always experienced as threat-
ening. Auditory hyper-sensitivity at this level may become activated in the adult, when the latter is in threatening situations (e.g., being alone in the dark) or has psychical disorders such as schizophrenia, which may manifest as the hearing of voices issuing commands. (Kohut 1990 [1957]: 23–24;; Kohut & Levarie 1990 [1950]: 4–9;; see also, Nass 1990: 44–45.) In such cases, the organized sounds of music may represent relief and the pleasure of mastering a (potentially) traumatic threat.
The superego functions of music relate, according to Kohut, to the recogni-
tion of and obeisance to an aesthetic ideal, i.e., to socio-cultural and ideological 33 Sublimation, in the jargon, indicates the channeling of a drive-based impulse into a socially acceptable form. Freud considered sublimation as essential factor in artistic work.
34 Transference is the actualization of unconscious wishes or fears, in such a way that feelings and thoughts which in early childhood were experienced toward an important person (object) are now re-located, and related to (what the subject considers as) an important person in the present. It is thus a question of a kind of projection or displace-
PHQW7KHHI¿FLHQF\RISV\FKRDQDO\WLFWUHDWPHQWLVWRDJUHDWH[WHQWEDVHGRQWKHPHFKDQ-
ics of transference.
norms. Kohut talks about aesthetic or musical superego. Aesthetic rules, concern-
ing form and harmony and the like, can be seen as artistic-emotional equivalents of moral codes (ethics). According to Kohut, aesthetic experience is connected to the satisfaction characterized by a sense of sureness resulting from submission to the demands of the aesthetic superego. It thus comes close to the moral satisfac-
tion one senses upon “having done something right”. (Kohut 1990 [1957]: 25.) Superego mechanisms operate in matters of musical taste, aesthetic ideolo-
gies, and schools of thought (paradigms). The aesthetic superego may, for exam-
ple, prevent the enjoyment of certain music or composing technique by deeming it bad, stupid, wrong, inappropriate, and so on. Aesthetic superego mechanisms are closely allied to those of the religious superego (Kurkela 1993: 443–447).
André Michel (1951) considers the composer to be an artistic representative of a society’s superego demands, and the composer’s musical style as a compro-
mise between subjugation to and revolt against the demands made by the social superego.35
In psychoanalytic theory, the formation of superego relates in an interesting way to the early acoustic sphere of the subject. Freud (1961a [1923]) describes the superego as developing from orders, laws, and censorship mediated by the parents’ voices. Shades and tones rule: the voice, for example, can be cutting, sharp, fuming, paralyzingly distant, or deathly cold. This sphere in the superego is not constructed on “contents” only (such as rules of behavior) but also on the tone of voice and other non-lexical material of speech (Kohut talks about
“forms”). Kohut gives a literary example: In Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones, the ceaseless drumming that comes ineluctable closer does not signify only impending, external punishment, but is also a symbol of one’s internal sense of guilt. According to Kohut, the domain of sounds, tones, and timbres cached in the superego is closely related to the preverbal acoustic sphere of the subject.
This is also connected to the soothing and calming, even hypnotic effect that certain music may have when it recalls an early experience, say, of the mother’s 35 One wonders if Michel is here studying western art music as socio-cultural and ideo-
logical construct à la new musicology forty years avant la lettre. Michel interprets Bach’s Protestant music as a secret continuation of Catholic tradition and as an artistic mediation EHWZHHQWKHWZR:KHQGLVFXVVLQJSchumann, Michel refers to André Coeuroy’s claim that Schumann, just before a psychotic break, was intensively studying Bach’s works, which Michel interprets as an attempt to make peace with the father-superego. (Michel 1951: 100–102.) Michel’s thought has points in common with Bloom’s (1973) theory of WKHDQ[LHW\RILQÀXHQFHDFFRUGLQJWRZKLFKSRHWV±DQGE\H[WHQVLRQFRPSRVHUV±DUH
¿JKWLQJ DQ 2HGLSDO ¿JKW DJDLQVW WKHLU SUHGHFHVVRUV DQG DJDLQVW HDUOLHU PRGHOV .RKXW (1990 [1957]: 25) offers another interpretation: if one experiences the ego as collapsing, one may will make desperate efforts to heal herself by musical contact and LGHQWL¿FDWLRQ with an “omnipotent” party, here Bach.
lullaby. (Kohut 1990 [1957]: 27–28.)
The structural functions of music, according to Kohut, can be summarized as follows: 1) emotional catharsis of primitive impulses and repressed wishes (id function of music);; 2) satisfactory mastering of a possibly traumatic threat (ego function);; 3) satisfactory submission to rules offering an inner sense of accep-
tance (superego function). Correspondingly, Richard P. :DQJ LQ GLVFXVVLQJ music therapy, talks about id-music as stimulating unconscious fantasies. Ego-
music, for its part, supports ego functions and strengthens the sense of reality and ego-defenses (tranquilizing music, for instance). Superego-music represents moral rules, orders, and inhibitions;; such music would include anthems, military DQGFKXUFKPXVLFIRULQVWDQFH:DQJ,WFRXOGEHDGGHGWKDWnarcis-
sistic satisfaction also is a central element in superego-music.
5. From the developmental (or genetic36) point of view, we see the psychic realm through the early developmental stages of an individual, and by paying attention to these stages as they form strata in the adult psyche. According to psy-
5. From the developmental (or genetic36) point of view, we see the psychic realm through the early developmental stages of an individual, and by paying attention to these stages as they form strata in the adult psyche. According to psy-