Music, psychology and psychotherapy

Journal/Book: Arts in Psychotherapy. 1982; 9: 191-202.

Abstract: Reviews the literature on the stimulus value of music, music and psychodynamics, traditional music therapy, music and behavior modification, music and psychoanalysis, and innovations in the use of music in therapy. Studies with psychotic patients have found that they preferred "primitive" music because it did not require restructuring and did not resemble emotional patterns. In the practice of behavior modification, music has been used as reinforcement in overcoming phobias, to evoke positive excitement as a response incompatible with anxiety, and as a time-out situation when unwanted behavior made positive reinforcement unavailable. In psychoanalysis, patients occasionally use song titles or lyrics for expression. Songs may also serve as the conscious and preconscious expressions of the conflicts of the patient. Music has been used in group therapy, with the severely depressed, and to produce a natural altered state of consciousness in alcoholics and drug addicts. (85 ref)

Note: music therapy & music in behavior modification & psychoanalysis; literature review

Keyword(s): Music therapy; literature review; behavior modification; psychoanalysis

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