Psychiatrist, Psychoanalyst Candidate. Graduated from Ege University Faculty of Medicine, completed her specialization in Psychiatry at İzmir Kâtip Çelebi University, Atatürk Training and Research Hospital. She is a member of the Turkish Psychiatric Association and a member of IPSO. She is currently working in private practice in İzmir and continues her psychoanalysis formation training affiliated to the International Psychoanalysis Association within the Psike İstanbul Psychoanalysis Association.
Defensive Silence
Silence is everywhere in human dialogue. Silence, which has always attracted the attention of poets and philosophers, has been a subject of curiosity and a potential key to knowledge. Both curiosity and knowledge have a deep importance for psychoanalysis. The meaning of silence in terms of psychoanalysis refers to a wide range of emotions and psychic formations between two people. In terms of clinical psychoanalysis, the most frequently encountered type of silence is defensive silence. The motivators of silence in the service of resistance are not only guilt, shame and fear of revenge. Loving and feeling loved can also be seen as threatening, especially for masochistic patients. All feelings of love begin with libidinal drives, especially the libidinal bond with the mother, and from the very beginning of development, hatred and aggression are as effective as strong libidinal drives. As soon as the patient begins to feel loved, his anxiety increases, on the one hand the desire to be close on the other hand the anxiety of losing his freedom reveals his aggressive impulses. With the awareness to some extent that the object he loves is the same object he hates and attacks and continues to attack with uncontrollable sadism and greed, he begins to experience feelings of sadness, guilt, and shame, and with the difficulty of carrying these ambivalent feelings, silences begin. How much of these silences in the room will the analyst be able to hear, how much will he be able to describe, and how much will he be able to encompass. All these primary feelings will be addressed within the framework of the concepts of transference and countertransference and will be discussed with case vignettes.
