This book is the first comprehensive treatment in recent decades of silence and silencing in psychoanalysis from clinical and research perspectives, as well as in philosophy, theology, linguistics, and musicology.

Section I - Cultural. Introduction to Section I 1.Silence in phenomenology: dream or nightmare? 2.Encountering religious and spiritual silences 3.Forms and Functions of Silence and Silencing. An Approach from Linguistics and Conversation Analysis with Reference to Psychotherapy 4.The many forms of silence in music 5.Silence in an Age of Distraction Section II - Clinical. Introduction to Section II 6.Cultural function and psychological transformation of silence in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy 7.Varieties of silence in the analytic setting 8.Silence as a manifestation of resistance 9.Silence is Golden (Usually) 10.Winnicott's Capacity for Silence in Understanding and Healing Human Nature 11.Silence As A Condition For Analytic Listening. Site, Situation and Process 12.Silence and silencing of the traumatized Section III - Research. Introduction to Section III 13.Measuring Silence. The Pausing Inventory Categorization System and a Review of Findings 14.Pauses are Conversations. What they tell us when we listen 15.How to move on after silences: Addressing thought processes to restart conversation 16.The interaction order of silent moments in everyday life: Lapses as joint embodied achievements 17.Speaking that silences. A single case multi-method analysis of a couple's interview. Concluding thoughts