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THE SILENT PATIENT AND THE USE OF SILENCE IN PSYCHOANALYTIC THERAPY
PRESENTER: VERDA TUZER, MD, LP
Although psychoanalytic psychotherapy is grounded in dialogue, careful attention is focused on what unfolds beyond words. Silence is not simply the absence of speech but an integral form of communication that shapes the emotional field between patient and therapist. Tone, rhythm, pauses, bodily presence, and the atmosphere of the session all carry meaning. Silence may emerge as a moment of reflection, follow a therapist’s intervention, signal agreement or disagreement, or accompany tension and distress when experience feels difficult to articulate.
This workshop explores the silent patient and the use of silence in psychoanalytic therapy, examining silence as defense, connection, withdrawal, and communication of absence or unmet need. Drawing on classical and contemporary psychoanalytic perspectives, we will consider how silence can express internal conflict, transference, and preverbal experience, as well as how the therapist’s silence may evoke unconscious fantasies and countertransference. Through clinical illustrations, the presentation highlights how attending thoughtfully to silence can transform impasse into meaning, deepen therapeutic engagement, and allow what cannot yet be spoken to be felt, understood, and eventually symbolized. Attention will also be given to how different forms of silence evolve over the course of treatment and how they inform clinical decision-making.
Learning Objectives
Participants will: 1) understand different forms and functions of silence in a psychotherapeutic setting, 2) become more aware of the emergence of silence between patient and therapist, and the role of the therapist in silence, and 3) be able to evaluate the role of both the therapist and the patient’s silence in the therapeutic process.
PRESENTER: VERDA TUZER, MD, LP Certificate in Adult Psychoanalysis, Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. Advanced Candidate, Child and Adolescent Psychoanalysis, Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. Advanced Candidate at the Anni Bergman Parent-Infant Program. Faculty: Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Adult and Child and Adolescent Programs. Supervisor: Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, Adult Program. Associate Member: Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. Membe: International Psychoanalytical Association.
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