Genres of Listening : An Ethnography of Psychoanalysis in Buenos Aires

In Genres of Listening Xochitl Marsilli-Vargas explores a unique culture of listening and communicating in Buenos Aires. She traces how psychoanalytic listening circulates beyond the clinical setting to become a central element of social interaction and cultural production in the city that has the highest number of practicing psychologists and psychoanalysts in the world. Marsilli-Vargas develops the concept of genres of listening to demonstrate that hearers listen differently, depending on where, how, and to whom they are listening. In particular, she focuses on psychoanalytic listening as a specific genre. Porteños (citizens of Buenos Aires) have developed a “psychoanalytic ear” that emerges during conversational encounters in everyday interactions in which participants offer different interpretations of the hidden meaning the words carry. Marsilli-Vargas does not analyze these interpretations as impositions or interruptions but as productive exchanges. By outlining how psychoanalytic listening operates as a genre, Marsilli-Vargas opens up ways to imagine other modes of listening and forms of social interaction. "Genres of Listening explores a unique culture of listening and communicating in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Xochiquetzal Marsilli-Vargas shows how psychoanalytic listening (which is grounded in the fundamental formula, "When you say X, I hear Y") has become a therapeutic technology that has crossed from the clinical setting to become a central element of social interaction and cultural production in Buenos Aires, the city with the highest number of practicing psychologists and psychoanalysts in the world. Marsilli-Vargas' fieldwork shows that "the lay listener in Buenos Aires who translates the words of others into new interpretations is helping the person to listen to herself." Ultimately, Genres of Listening suggests that there could be other "genres" of listening, such as ethical listening, which have been vastly underexplored"-- Provided by publisher. Contents 7 Author’s Note 8 Acknowledgments 9 Introduction: A City of Listeners 13 1 For a Theory of Genres of Listening 37 2 The Music in the Words 60 3 “What You Really Mean Is . . . ” Listening to “That Which Is Not Said” 92 4 The Psychoanalytic Field in Buenos Aires 118 5 The Mass Mediation of Psychoanalytic Listening 149 Conclusion: Final Resonances 186 Notes 197 References 215 Index 235 Xochitl Marsilli-Vargas explains how psychoanalytic listening practices have expanded beyond the clinical setting to influence everyday social interactions in Buenos Aires.