Opera on the Couch
Music, Emotional Life, and Unconscious Aspects of Mind
Opera on the Couch was published by Routledge in 2022. In addition to co-editing the volume, I have contributed a chapter entitled “Across the Great Divide: Reflections on the Moral Reversal in Mozart’s The Magic Flute”, as well as an introductory essay, co-written with Steven H. Goldberg, entitled “Psychoanalysis and Opera: A Felicitous Match”
In this widely ranging collection of essays, a group of contemporary psychoanalyst/ authors turn their finely-honed listening skills and clinical experience to plumb the depths and illuminate themes of character, drama, myth, culture, and psychobiography in some of the world’s most beloved operas.
The richly diverse chapters are unified by a psychoanalytic approach to the nuances of unconscious mental life and emotional experience as they unfold synergistically in opera’s music, words, and drama. Opera creates a unique bridge between thought and feeling, mind and body, and conscious and unconscious that offers fertile ground for psychological exploration of profound human truths.
Each piece is written in a colorful and non-technical manner that will appeal to mental health professionals, musicians, academics, and general readers wishing better to understand and appreciate opera as an art form.
Endorsements
‘Goldberg and Rather have compiled an operatic and psychoanalytic treat for lovers of opera. Their imaginative and scholarly introduction demonstrates how much the two disciplines share in common. Every psychoanalytic session has something of an opera about it, and the music and drama of every opera tells a psychological tale. Readers will have their appreciation of both disciplines deepened and much enhanced.’
‘Like fairy tales or myths brought to life, opera touches deep levels of our understanding. This thoughtful collection of papers bringing opera and psychoanalysis together shows much about why this is so. While the themes of individual operas are illuminated by erudite psychoanalytic commentary, the understanding of the interplay of words and music in opera enhances a grasp of the interplay between verbal and non-verbal, conscious and unconscious in analysis. A pleasure to read.’
‘Opera lovers have long known that the most direct path to the psyche is via the complex interplay of extraordinary music and profound human experiences depicted in the great operas. Psychoanalytic thinkers have pondered the connection over many decades. It is a great delight to read this extraordinary new volume that so masterfully brings together heart and the mind. Therapists, music lovers, and historians will love it!’
Book Reviews
Timothy Sawyier, LCPC – International Journal of Psychoanalysis
Sawyier, T. (2024). Book Review: Opera on the Couch: Music, Emotional Life, and Unconscious Aspects of Mind. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 72(1), 221-226.
Andrea Sabbadini – International Journal of Psychoanalysis
Sabbadini, A. (2023). Book Review: Opera on the Couch: Music, Emotional Life, and Unconscious Aspects of the Mind.: Edited by Steven H. Goldberg and Lee Rather. New York: Routledge, 2022. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 104(1), 183-185.
Allen R. Dyer – The Psychoanalytic Quarterly
Dyer, A. R. (2023). Book Review: Opera on the Couch: Music, Emotional Life, and Unconscious Aspects of Mind. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, Vol 92, 3, 558-566.