ABSTRACT
In psychotherapy, silence is to be regarded as an event in the dyad, a production which the patient and the therapist share in authorship. Since the earliest insights Into the dynamic aspects of mental life, the silent patient has stimulated a great deal of interest and raised questions of importance to both the theory and practice of psychotherapy. A conception of psychotherapy grew out of a richer understanding of the mental apparatus and a further realization of the role that symbolism and unconscious processes play in’human intercourse. The silence came to be recognized as a symbol of death, homosexuality, aggression, oral masturbation, anal-erotic pleasure, repression of pregenitality, displaced punishment, and other symbols. Silence is to be considered an integral part of relationship, and regarded as neither harmful nor undesirable to therapeutic purpose. For even at the communicational level, as a statement in and about the relationship, silence may be as eloquent as the spoken word.
