ABSTRACT
There are many silences. For Quakers silence is pregnant with spirit, prayer, possibility. For some religious sects it is a way of life. It is often used as a form of punishment, especially for children, but also sometimes for prisoners. It can be a place of meditation, of rest, of daydreams, but also of nightmares. For most of us silence in the company of others is embarrassing, a void that we must rush to try and fill. For analysts it is a key to their analysands. In myriad ways it is a gap: literary works never published, historical manuscripts burned, narratives forgotten, denied or ignored. In autobiographies and life stories silences may be a sign either of deliberate exclusion or of lost memory.
