23.7. 1993 Vitoria-Gasteiz / Spain - World Federation of Music Therapy

developmentalists, for new psychoanalytic thought as
well as for music therapy theory and practice: that the
infant has a 'ready-made circuit for dialoguing'. This
concept of inherent intersubjectivity, proposed by
Norwegian sociologist and cybernetician, Stein Braten,
is described in terms of 'a dyadic organization involving
a complementary participant, labelled the "virtual Other"
as a part of the rudimentary self-organization.' (Braten,
1988). He uses the metaphor of the dance to illustrate
this principle: '..proto-conversation comes about, as the
virtual dance in the innate organization of the infant
becomes a realized dance; when the adult steps into the
place of the virtual other, maintaining one organization
of dialogic closure, not two. Quoting Martin Buber,
Braten summarises: "The innate You is realized in the
actual meeting of You." '
This 'innateness' would appear to be that same
innateness, of which music therapists speak when
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referring to 'innate musicality'. This term seems to
include organizational and affective-conative
components of inter-personal responsiveness.
Braten's concept of the 'virtual Other' iluminates not
only the two-person psychology of infancy research but
concurs with the dynamic intra- and inter-psychic
processes of psychoanalytic concepts concerning ego
development and personality integration. For example:
Early object relations of Klein;
Bion and his theory of alpha function transforming
beta elements; the carer as not only container, but
transformer;
Winnicott's writings about the 'good enough'
mother, the
phenomena;
holding function and transitional
The spectrum of transference and counter-