Printed book: $26.95

Music and Psyche

Contemporary Psychoanalytic Explorations

Edited by Paul Ashton & Stephen Bloch

325 pages, ISBN 9781935528043, Spring

The way that the diverse-seeming fields of music and psychoanalysis inter-penetrate is a growing area of interest and exploration. This book comprises a selection of essays and interviews that explore various aspects of this interface. The papers cover various perspectives within the analytic spectrum. There are contributions by classical Jungian analysts, Jungian and other analysts concerned with the theories of Bion, Winnicott and Lacan, and also two music therapists. What is shared by these disparate authors is a loving involvement with music. This vital compilation suggests many areas for further exploration. To make the experience more vivid, an accompanying CD provides some examples of the music described in the text. The primary aim of the book has been to show how music, and an understanding of the psyche, can enrich each other.

Paul Ashton (editor) is a psychiatrist and Jungian analyst in private practice in Cape Town. He is the author of a monograph on void states, From the Brink, published by Karnac, and editor/contributor of Evocations of Absence: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Void States, published by Spring. He has published various reviews and articles and lectured on topics such as art, literature, and the Void.

Stephen Bloch (editor) is a clinical psychologist and Jungian analyst in private practice in Cape Town. He has published a chapter, "Music as Dreaming," in Evocations of Absence (2007), and given seminars on other aspects of music and psychoanalysis, and on ethics. He is a founding member of the Southern African Association of Jungian Analysts (SAAJA) and has served on SAAJA’s Executive Committee, as well as on its Assessment and Review, Ethics, and Library Committees.