Ferveur, Christophe

Harmony and dissonance: Choral singing and therapeutic mediation - 2016.


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From a babbling baby to the vocal changes brought on by puberty, the voice, by essence transitive, reflects the body’s movements and is fundamentally tied to the instinctual realm. As a paradigm of the metamorphosis during puberty, the voice’s transformations during adolescence make clear, and quite audibly so, the mourning of the infantile objects. In the practice of therapeutic mediation with adolescents, be it concerning the relationship with oneself or with others, the experience of singing as a vocal group allows the individual to define the limits of intra and intersubjective relationships. These relationships offer the teenager the possibility to experience a part of the conflicts that exist within him/him. From practical experiences of choral singing with teenage psychiatric patients, the author, who is a professional lyrical singer as well as a psychoanalyst, shares his experience in therapeutic mediation.