Speaking with Silence. An Exploration of Silence and Its Relationship to Speech in Analytic Groups

Abstract

This article suggests that silence has been undervalued and neglected in group analysis. This includes the way it is split off from theoretical group paradigms, which traditionally hold verbal communication as central to therapeutic change. At the core of this argument is an assertion that speech and silence are inseparable and need to be understood in relationship to each other. The article also explores how silence might emerge in groups both helpfully and problematically. Using clinical examples, from her training group, the author describes two different kinds of group silences, which might be loosely identified as ‘mature’ and ‘primitive’. She discusses the complex dialectic between speech and silence emerging in these vignettes, suggesting that this is what underpins the therapeutic exchange and developments in these examples and in analytic groups generally.