Some thoughts on the origins of musical giftedness

Sarah Nettleton

In this paper, the phenomenon of musical giftedness is explored from a psychodynamic perspective. The role of sound is examined - in  the earliest physiological stirrings of auditory perception in the womb, in  the sensitivity to sensory modes in the young infant and his mother, and in  the growing complexity of object relations and transitional phenomena as they develop during childhood. The author presents the hypothesis that musically gifted children retain a primary auditory cathexis.  This colours both the relationship with the primary object and  the child’s sense of self, highlighting certain abstract elements in the internal world.  It is suggested that these children  retain a continuous connection with the roots of their intrapsychic experience, but that they may encounter particular idiosyncratic difficulties in integrating their self-experience with external reality.

Sarah Nettleton is a psychoanalyst working in private practice in West London. She trained with the BAP and is also a member of the International Psychoanalytic Association.  Originally she studied music at the Guildhall and worked for many years as a piano accompanist. 

For her Masters degree at the Tavistock, she wrote her dissertation on the psychodynamics of musical giftedness. Her more recent work has included papers on  Schubert’s song cycle Die Winterreise, on the effects of sound and voice in Beckett, and on  the relationship between Voice, Creativity and Metaphor. 

For the past few years she has edited the writing of Christopher Bollas, and she teaches seminars on his work at the BAP, both for the psychotherapy training and for post-graduates.