Sounding the Self: Analogy in Improvisational Music Therapy

An exciting journey into the development of a general theory of music therapy. Based on Daniel Sterns concept of vitality affects, the author developed the theory of analogy, which tries to explain how a person in the music sounds his or her Self, and how the Self interacts with the environment. The book is based on the philosophical view that language is a limited mode for representing human experience, In the authors opinion, language is only one way of understanding, based on the verbal modeling of experience; whereas music gives understanding of what is beyond words. From the same angle, the author discusses the meaning of symbolic knowledge versus the intimate knowledge of analogy. This raises the question if a theory in words ever can describe what is beyond words.

The book is the result of many years of theoretical inquiries and naturalistic case study research. It offers an integrated model for answering the question why music therapy helps the client. Each question within the model is linked to topics of music therapy research, such as: the development of treatment goals and interventions, the effectiveness of treatment, and the development of rationales about treatment and effectiveness.

The theory of analogy has been developed by studying the thoughts of music therapists when talking about their work, studying their case studies, and by the authors qualitative case study research through many years.

From the perspective of research, the book advocates the qualitative paradigm as a collective inquiry constructing the collective sense of the profession. The theory of analogy is an attempt to integrate music therapy concepts on a more general level, and at the same time, give space to the special: the individual client, the therapist, and music therapy process. Analogy is a general concept that

CONTENTS

Foreword         

Introduction    

PART I: RESEARCH AND THEORY IN MUSIC THERAPY

Chapter One: Multiple perspectives on the development of an evidence-based music therapy:

A personal history        

              Introduction    

              The development of research topics in music therapy  

              The agenda for the future: Peer debriefing       

Chapter Two: Criteria for indications in music therapy

              Introduction    

              Research

              Examples of indications             

              Discussion        

              Epilogue: A client-focused and evidence-based music therapy treatment

Chapter Three: Toward a general theory of music therapy?      

              Introduction

              The dialogue

              Peer debriefing

              A categorization of questions and statements

PART II: TOWARD A THEORY OF ANALOGY IN MUSIC THERAPY

Chapter Four: The power of music        

              Introduction    

              Form and content         

              Cognitive processing    

              Music: The irrational and numinous     

              Referential meaning of ‘empty’ words

              Symbolic knowledge    

              Intimate knowledge     

              Conclusions and outlook           

Chapter Five: Analogy: A core category in the writings of music therapists          

              Introduction    

              Research          

              Examples of concepts used by music therapists             

              Analogy as a core category       

              Epilogue: Triangulation

Chapter Six : Forms of feeling and forms of perception

              Introduction    

              To begin with: The hypothesis and one example            

              A perspective from psychology

              A perspective from art

              Therapy beyond words: Personal change by analogous experiences     

Chapter Seven: Defining and redefining the core category of analogy    

              Introduction    

              Defining analogy           

              A glossary of concepts

              Objections       

              Toward an intermediary language        

              A semiotic perspective from music therapy clinical practice       

              Epilogue: Redefining analogy   

Chapter Eight: The analogy of musical interaction and the development of an independent self                          Introduction    

              Theme and variation between mother and child            

              Conservation and variation in music and music therapy             

              Epilogue: The analogous triangle           

Chapter Nine:  Examples of analogy from research and clinical practice

              Introduction    

              The man who could not drive his car    

              The woman who struggled with her mother     

              A fight between mother and daughter

              The woman who locked herself in a cage           

              The man who passed the ‘point of no return’  

              The man who lost his future    

              The girl who was not there       

Chapter Ten: Researching analogies     

              Introduction    

              Knowledge development by triangulating clinical experience, naturalistic inquiry, and double-loop learning         

              Principles of naturalistic inquiry             

              Techniques of naturalistic inquiry         

              Naturalistic inquiry on analogies            

              Epilogue           

Chapter Eleven: Epilogue: A never-ending story             

              Analogy            

              Metaphors, symbols and signs

              Musical meaning          

              Verbal language            

              Expression and impression       

              Closing

References       

Index  

The Author