Before I received my Master's at Pacifica in Counseling Psychology, I worked as a speech therapist (still do), so language and speech continue to be primary interests of mine. I've been especially intrigued by the popularity of The King's Speech at a time when the debate about discourse is prevailing and am wondering what a depth approach might make of this. There is the ability/ease of speaking versus not, the inability to fluidly communicate, and I'm also wondering if there is something particular about stuttering that informs this collective conversation.
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I realized reading your responses, Ed and Bonnie, that there are two discussions in this. One focuses specifically on the movie, The King's Speech. I think you have captured the subtext about clarity and power. Although, that said, Bertie stuttered even with his family and children. So I wonder too, if there isn't something about the changing of the face of patriarchy. Bertie's father was the stern face of King and Father while Bertie was a gentler King and a much more loving father, although he had difficulty with the story for the girls, so perhaps there is something there about the difficulty in the transition as well as a reminder about embracing the shadow of the king/father archetype. Like the thoughts on the "second" son. Suits the times, especially if you see the politician's, pundits, talking heads as the first born, the electorate as the "second" sons.
The second part of the discussion is a more general discussion of speech delays and what they might mean archetypally. Do they differ if they occur early on, when children are first learning to talk, or if they continue (like stuttering which in a percentage of stutterers is lifelong), or occur later in life? I was wondering aloud to Bonnie if there might be something in the type of speech delay/difficulty. Is there something particular in stuttering that makes it somehow different? It most often starts around 3-5 and is a part of normal language development that for some reason alters, not just worsens, but moves from types.
I will add to the discussion that I am a stutterer (relatively fluent) as was my father. There is a genetic component to stuttering. If you have a parent that stutters, you are three times more likely to be a stutterer. My father also became relatively fluent but it still haunted him.
You do honor to this discussion and to this site in adding your own personal experience.
I cannot speak to your experience or learning in this area and must stay with the story of the movie. Following your lead, I grew up without the freedom to express my voice in that to do so might counter the positions of my own father. He was never as harsh as the king but there was a "stiff upper lip" attitude of child rearing that was predominate. My lack of voice was due to my seeing any other opinion as dishonoring my father. The most moving aspect of the movie for me was when Bertie stood in the middle of the carpet and yelled, "I do have a voice!" I just about jumped out of my seat to cheer.
There is the image of the death of the old king being needed for the full maturity to be attained by the young king. The fact that the speech therapist was a bit of a Hermetic figure could also be explored in that as Hermes he is able to help the conversation between two worlds take place, and there are several "two worlds" in the movie. Also, in Hermetic style, the therapist had no problems with lying and deception if it allowed for the eventual proper conclusion.
Susan Cross > Ed KoffenbergerJanuary 15, 2011 at 8:18pm
I felt the same when he yelled, "I do have a voice." I was the most disfluent with my father who was certainly not as authoritarian as his father but had little tolerance for alternative views. The finding of the voice to tell the story reminded me of the Greek myth of Philomela. How she found a voice through weaving to tell the story of what happened to her.
The speech therapist was a Hermetic figure! Of course. I love that. And I think the stuttering itself is Tricksterish, ebbing and flowing, predictable perhaps but mostly not. That is, in fact, how secondary behaviors develop (like eye blinks, fist pounding, tapping, grimacing, etc), the occasional success (fluency) which reinforces the behavior. The speech therapist is a bridge between the two worlds, voiced and voiceless, fluent and not. You could also see him as a psychopomp in the leading through the underworld of the unconscious where whatever trauma occurred at 7 which triggered Bertie's stuttering. The therapeutic chambers were below ground, or at least seemed to be (they rode the elevator down I believe).
It also strikes me writing this that there is something alchemical in it. The creation of a strong enough retort. For the speech at the end, the therapist closes the room with drapes, etc. to create more intimacy, to increase his focus as opposed to that first incident that occurred in an open air, public address. I wonder how much of stuttering might be a weak retort/alembic, the inability to contain within word, grammar, and therefore a shattering. I'm just riffing now but it is an interesting conjecture.
And I promise I'll go see Black Swan so we can talk about that. It's on my list but I'm not the movie goer I used to be.
They did ride the elevator down!! Great "catch." The alembic of therapist's office and created studio was heated by the death of the king, abdication of the older brother, and the coming war. Bertie was restrained to be a prima materia figure who was needing to become more fluent in his speech so that it could be projected through the air as the nation needed to be "fired up" for the war to come. WOW, talk about riff!!
I haven't seen the movie yet (it's on my list!) but I have always been fascinated by the way we communicate. I agree with Ed that there may be a connection about clarity and power since those two things are often intrinsically related.If you can make yourself clear, there's more potential that something will happen as a result.
Since undertaking my own education/work in the field of depth psychology, I am also really interested in silence and what goes on at the margins. Individuals who struggle with speech disorders have, at least in this culture, been historically marginalized--and yet, there is so much that happens there at the margins, at the threshold between worlds. People who speak easily may also be more prone to speaking without much thought, while those who know they are going to have a hard time getting it out might be more reflective in order to be efficient and end up tapping into what the power of reflection provides.
Oddly, I have had a taste of this since I started using Twitter (where my primary goal is to disseminate information and encourage inquiry into Depth Psych related topics). Finding myself limited to 140 characters has made me far more reflective about what and how I put information out into the world. I know impediments have traditionally had a bad rap and I can't begin to imagine how difficult and frustrating it must be for someone who is challenged in that way - but one thing is for sure, when someone stutters they often have the full attention of others. Maybe Psyche is involved by drawing attention the of others to the margins and the place where reflection resides when someone stutters?
Susan Cross > Bonnie BrightJanuary 15, 2011 at 7:25pm
The idea of silences is an interesting one. I came to an understanding of writing that the best stories of mine had enough space within them to allow the reader to slip in an inhabit the story.
The silences in stuttering, at least in my experience, are both welcome and cultivated and unwelcome. Some silences are forced upon you by an inability to say a word, to begin it, or to complete it. Others are a pause as you feed-forward, think of what you want to say, scan for trigger sounds that can be trouble, find some other way to say it, or risk the only way you can think of, no matter what the cost.
The attention of the listener when you stutter is an interesting point because it often makes people very uncomfortable. The stutter almost pulls the listener along with it and you, a pretty strong threshold experience actually, taking the speaker and listener to the edges of communication.
Interesting question. My knee jerk response is that there is a subtext about clarity and power, esp. if they need to be synonymous in the face of war. Our most recent wars have often been criticized for their lack of clarity (if not downright deception). I also wonder, curiously, if there are many who feel like second sons (deemed unimportant in relation to the first born in traditional British society) in our culture all struggling to have a voice in that increasingly the voiceless are the ones fighting the wars in response to the Twitter-speak of our leaders. Just a few initial thoughts.
Replies
I realized reading your responses, Ed and Bonnie, that there are two discussions in this. One focuses specifically on the movie, The King's Speech. I think you have captured the subtext about clarity and power. Although, that said, Bertie stuttered even with his family and children. So I wonder too, if there isn't something about the changing of the face of patriarchy. Bertie's father was the stern face of King and Father while Bertie was a gentler King and a much more loving father, although he had difficulty with the story for the girls, so perhaps there is something there about the difficulty in the transition as well as a reminder about embracing the shadow of the king/father archetype. Like the thoughts on the "second" son. Suits the times, especially if you see the politician's, pundits, talking heads as the first born, the electorate as the "second" sons.
The second part of the discussion is a more general discussion of speech delays and what they might mean archetypally. Do they differ if they occur early on, when children are first learning to talk, or if they continue (like stuttering which in a percentage of stutterers is lifelong), or occur later in life? I was wondering aloud to Bonnie if there might be something in the type of speech delay/difficulty. Is there something particular in stuttering that makes it somehow different? It most often starts around 3-5 and is a part of normal language development that for some reason alters, not just worsens, but moves from types.
I will add to the discussion that I am a stutterer (relatively fluent) as was my father. There is a genetic component to stuttering. If you have a parent that stutters, you are three times more likely to be a stutterer. My father also became relatively fluent but it still haunted him.
Susan,
You do honor to this discussion and to this site in adding your own personal experience.
I cannot speak to your experience or learning in this area and must stay with the story of the movie. Following your lead, I grew up without the freedom to express my voice in that to do so might counter the positions of my own father. He was never as harsh as the king but there was a "stiff upper lip" attitude of child rearing that was predominate. My lack of voice was due to my seeing any other opinion as dishonoring my father. The most moving aspect of the movie for me was when Bertie stood in the middle of the carpet and yelled, "I do have a voice!" I just about jumped out of my seat to cheer.
There is the image of the death of the old king being needed for the full maturity to be attained by the young king. The fact that the speech therapist was a bit of a Hermetic figure could also be explored in that as Hermes he is able to help the conversation between two worlds take place, and there are several "two worlds" in the movie. Also, in Hermetic style, the therapist had no problems with lying and deception if it allowed for the eventual proper conclusion.
I felt the same when he yelled, "I do have a voice." I was the most disfluent with my father who was certainly not as authoritarian as his father but had little tolerance for alternative views. The finding of the voice to tell the story reminded me of the Greek myth of Philomela. How she found a voice through weaving to tell the story of what happened to her.
The speech therapist was a Hermetic figure! Of course. I love that. And I think the stuttering itself is Tricksterish, ebbing and flowing, predictable perhaps but mostly not. That is, in fact, how secondary behaviors develop (like eye blinks, fist pounding, tapping, grimacing, etc), the occasional success (fluency) which reinforces the behavior. The speech therapist is a bridge between the two worlds, voiced and voiceless, fluent and not. You could also see him as a psychopomp in the leading through the underworld of the unconscious where whatever trauma occurred at 7 which triggered Bertie's stuttering. The therapeutic chambers were below ground, or at least seemed to be (they rode the elevator down I believe).
It also strikes me writing this that there is something alchemical in it. The creation of a strong enough retort. For the speech at the end, the therapist closes the room with drapes, etc. to create more intimacy, to increase his focus as opposed to that first incident that occurred in an open air, public address. I wonder how much of stuttering might be a weak retort/alembic, the inability to contain within word, grammar, and therefore a shattering. I'm just riffing now but it is an interesting conjecture.
And I promise I'll go see Black Swan so we can talk about that. It's on my list but I'm not the movie goer I used to be.
Since undertaking my own education/work in the field of depth psychology, I am also really interested in silence and what goes on at the margins. Individuals who struggle with speech disorders have, at least in this culture, been historically marginalized--and yet, there is so much that happens there at the margins, at the threshold between worlds. People who speak easily may also be more prone to speaking without much thought, while those who know they are going to have a hard time getting it out might be more reflective in order to be efficient and end up tapping into what the power of reflection provides.
Oddly, I have had a taste of this since I started using Twitter (where my primary goal is to disseminate information and encourage inquiry into Depth Psych related topics). Finding myself limited to 140 characters has made me far more reflective about what and how I put information out into the world. I know impediments have traditionally had a bad rap and I can't begin to imagine how difficult and frustrating it must be for someone who is challenged in that way - but one thing is for sure, when someone stutters they often have the full attention of others. Maybe Psyche is involved by drawing attention the of others to the margins and the place where reflection resides when someone stutters?
The idea of silences is an interesting one. I came to an understanding of writing that the best stories of mine had enough space within them to allow the reader to slip in an inhabit the story.
The silences in stuttering, at least in my experience, are both welcome and cultivated and unwelcome. Some silences are forced upon you by an inability to say a word, to begin it, or to complete it. Others are a pause as you feed-forward, think of what you want to say, scan for trigger sounds that can be trouble, find some other way to say it, or risk the only way you can think of, no matter what the cost.
The attention of the listener when you stutter is an interesting point because it often makes people very uncomfortable. The stutter almost pulls the listener along with it and you, a pretty strong threshold experience actually, taking the speaker and listener to the edges of communication.