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ABSTRACT
New narratives can emerge and arrive when categories and concepts can be radically reimagined. This essay is a collection of notes that play with the concept of object relations, considering the presence of non-object relations, which may appear in the form of vibration and/or sound. As a way of offering the reader examples and possibilities for non-object relations, these notes draw on theories of classical Chinese medicine, the concept of the fade-out in music, and the performance style of Pansori, a traditional form of Korean music.
Acknowledgments
An earlier version of this work was presented as part of the Division 39 panel “Listening Beyond the Human” on April 29, 2023, in New York City. This panel included presentations by and discussion with Patricia Ticineto Clough, Ph.D., Katie Gentile, Ph.D., and Kathleen Del Mar Miller, L.C.S.W., M.F.A.
This essay’s title is a quoted line from “Star Beings,” a poem by Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge from her book A Treatise on Stars (Citation2020).
The line “Sound is the last sense you have before you die” is inspired by a scientific news article, “Electrophysiological Evidence of Preserved Hearing at the End of Life” (Blundon, Citation2020).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflicts of interest are reported by the authors(s).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Kelly Merklin
Kelly Merklin, L.C.S.W., M.A., is a psychoanalyst practicing in New York City.