ABSTRACT
The analyst's work is based on listening and interpretation. But each interpretation risks promoting in the patient the illusion of an omniscient analyst who can determine the truth of the unconscious of the other, without even having recourse to the patient's associations or psychic work. This narcissistic fascination must be renounced in order for the patient to recognise that interpretation actually arises from the union of his words with the analyst's listening. It is necessary for analyst and patient to have recourse to “listening to listening”. For the analyst, this consists of being sensitive to the way in which the patient reinterprets what he hears (sometimes even the analyst's silence “speaks”) so that he can appreciate the nature and scale of the psychic work in the process. Sometimes, listening to listening can be the object of sharing. Initially developed as a clinical concept in analysis, the concept “listening to listening” was extended to the work of clinical reflection between analysts.
