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Freud's Lost Chord: Discovering Jazz in the Resonant Psyche

Author(s) : Daniel Sapen

Reviews and Endorsements

‘This is a timely and important book on the relationship of psychoanalysis and music. Its strength derives from Sapen’s command of both fields. Using psychoanalytic theorists such as Bion, Winnicott, Loewald, Meltzer, and Rycroft, Sapen maps a rich concept of the unconscious as creative process. He then applies that concept to jazz, with special attention to the great work of Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Previous psychoanalytic studies of music have focussed on classical music. Sapen makes out a brilliant case for jazz as the musical idiom that offers the richest possibilities for an art capable of exploring the dynamics of the unconscious. The book shimmers with fresh insights, both into psychoanalysis and into music. A seminal work.’
- Walter A. Davis, Professor Emeritus in the Department of English at Ohio State University

‘A wonderful exploration of the interface and intermingling of music and psychoanalysis. Sapen, a therapist-musician, explores the nature of rhythm, resonance, and response, melding a rich panoply of psychoanalytic writings, including Winnicott, Bion, and the relational psychology of analyst-musician Steven Knoblauch, with the music of Coltrane and Miles. Sapen’s sense of beauty and rhythm touches many chords, and brings out what music can do for psychoanalysis, not just what psychoanalysis can say about music.’
- Michael Eigen Training analyst with the National Psychological Association for
Psychoanalysis (USA); Associate Professor of Psychology, New York University

‘I am dazzled by how well Sapen articulates the subtleties of the analytic process and its purposes, and into the nature, technical aspects, and multidimensional dynamics of improvisational music and their relevance to the question of emergent consciousness. Few if any writers in my experience have demonstrated either the insight or quality of prose to deal so lucidly with these matters, let alone simultaneously.’
Lee Underwood - Musician and author; former West Coast USA editor of Downbeat; contributing journalist to Rolling Stone and The Los Angeles Times