An acoustic holding environment: from the analysis of a 'transitional character'

The significance of the sounds of human voices is often blurred by our customary emphasis on the visual representations of objects and part-objects in the reconstruction in analysis of patients' unconscious fantasies. A case has been presented highlighting an individual's sensitivity to the noises of his early holding environment, and his use of them for perpetuating his early attachments, as well as in substituting for his stunted phallic development. The case is offered in support of the contention that our instruments of reproducing and transmitting human sounds often become auxiliaries in mediating the problem of separation: as such, they also become internalized influences in character formation. The clinical type described is seen as representative of a genre of people whose early transitional development has directed their choices toward certain life roles that are inordinately stamped with the imprint of illusion. Many of them receive a legitimization from the outer society (like the child's transitional object receives confirmation from its mother), thereby justifying their being classified as having 'transitional characters'. In this broad category, one could list entrepreneurs and actors from business and entertainment, including impresarios and magicians, mimes and comedians. The fields of politics and religion, philosophy and psychology, are by no means exempt from attracting individuals of this order.