Spontaneous Music: How Analyst and Analysand Learn to Improvise Together

WEDNESDAY December 2, 2020
WHEN? 8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
ONLINE EVENT Held via Zoom Videoconference

Marilyn Lerner, BFA Hon, RP
Spontaneous Music: How Analyst and Analysand learn to improvise together (Reflections of a musician/psychoanalyst)

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SYNOPSIS

Although there has been a considerable amount written about musical improvisation as a descriptor of the moment to moment in the clinic, jazz music has been the primary model. Little has been written about free improvisation or spontaneous music, that is a kind of music with no preordained structure, style, form or vocabulary. Free improvised music is thus co-created spontaneously by the performers. Using free improvisation as the paradigm for what I feel is closer to what actually transpires in the moment to moment and analysis as a whole, this paper will explore the study, performance and practice of creative music and the real time experience with a patient. I intend to convey some of my ideas about the possible advantages in conceiving the entire analytic encounter with the ear of a creative improviser, making use of every action including resistances, silences, ruptures, as part of an improvisation and full of potential. As soloists and in duo, analysts and patient work to free up thought and eventually create a distinct, unique vocabulary and a series of improvisatory creations. The experience of doing this over time enriches both, regardless of theoretical orientation or technique. In this way I hope to bring attention to the ways we as analysts can strive to be better improvisors in the key of our patients.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Marilyn Lerner is an internationally recognized jazz pianist, composer and improviser, a psychoanalyst and a registered psychotherapist with a full-time private practice in Toronto. She is a member of IARRP, TICP, OSP and a guest at the TPS&I.
Marilyn is active in both the music and therapy communities. She is interested in the intersection of art and psychoanalysis.