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(2009). Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 78:631-632

Understanding Vocalization in Primitive Mental States: Bellowing, Blaring, and Blathering. By David L. Goldman, pp. 281-301.

Three examples of “motorically generated vocalizations” (p. 285) are examined by Goldman in this clinically oriented paper. The author proposes that they are linked by an “underlying theme” of “failed striving for a religious-type, mystical oneness, akin to the oceanic feeling” (p. 285). The three types of vocalization explored are imperious bellowing, blaring, and blathering.

Goldman first details a variety of views on the bellowing of Daniel Paul Schreber, as detailed in his memoir. Freud was interested in the object of Schreber's bellowing: the sun and its many possible meanings. Lacan was interested in the defensive function of the bellowing. Goldman wonders about the “sensuous, almost masturbatory stimulation

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that Schreber experienced from hearing his own voice” (p. 287)—not at an oedipal level, but more at the level of “pure physical sensation” (p. 288). The author also mentions that bellowing can be seen in an interpersonal light—for example, in the rupture of “pathological love relations” (p. 288).

As the author describes it, blaring involves “a noisy flattening of word sense and word sound resembling the ominous blare of a trumpet” (p. 289). He cites Clifford Scott in relating it to a stage of “grief, mania, and mourning” (p. 289). Goldman provides examples from individual and group therapy sessions that include the use of music and musical instruments in blaring.

Blathering, Goldman notes, involves a fairly relaxed jaw and rapid tongue movements, creating primitive and loving noises that have been described by Clifford Scott. The positive aspects of blathering were noted by Scott, as were ways to work with resistances to blathering. Goldman provides examples of blathering from one of Scott's cases and from instances of religious glossolalia.

The author closes by touching upon some post-Cartesian psychoanalytic ideas that can inform our listening to bellowing, blaring, and blathering. In particular, Goldman explores the ideas of Lacan, Bion, and others in this regard.

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Article Citation [Who Cited This?]

(2009). Understanding Vocalization in Primitive Mental States: Bellowing, Blaring, and Blathering. By David L. Goldman, pp. 281-301.. Psychoanal Q., 78:631-632