ABSTRACT
This chapter first discusses some similarities between music and psychoanalysis. If one agrees that some people have a better innate disposition to musicality, they must still consider which part early individual auditory experiences have played in its establishment. The chapter examines this point with reference to psychoanalytic theories of child development. Listening to one's own voice within a holding environment is what characterises the psychoanalytic experience itself. The use of music and sound in extending the link from mother to child is a core issue in the move towards differentiation and in the development of a sense of reality. If the "echoing" of such familiar sounds and voices is missing, the child may be thrown into a frighteningly empty universe of silence where she will feel insecure and therefore unable to safely move forward towards independence.
