Psychoanalysis and Performing Arts

Abstract

The intersection between classical psychoanalysis and classical music, poses distinct challenges and opportunities. Drawing from education and experience, both as a classically trained musician and psychoanalyst, the author explores their unique relationship by illustrating, through a fantasy dialogue between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Sigmund Freud, how blending these two topics can lead to a fun, serious, informative, and creative endeavor. Following a discussion of the unique properties of music and psychoanalysis and considering briefly the unresolved debate of why Freud was disdainful of music, the author illustrates how music and psychoanalytic theory inform each other, and suggest that music and psychoanalytic ideas are of use to the fields of mental health, music, education, social science, the arts and humanities, and in everyday life. One way to demonstrate the intersection between music and psychoanalytic ideas is to illustrate both disciplines and to do so creatively.