Individual Music Therapy with an Addicted Rock Musician

Journal/Book: Musiktherapeutische Umschau. 1983; 4: STUTTGART. G. Fischer Verlag. 39-50.

Abstract: The case of a multiple addict (addicted principally to tranquilisers) is described. Before his illness the patient was a professional rock musician. The 22 hours of individual music therapy aimed, broadly speaking 1) to provide, by means of self-perception and relaxation exercises using elementary sound structures, the experience that the relaxation sought in drugs can be achieved unaided, without chemical assistance; 2) to enable, by means of singing and making music together, healthy elements of the patient's personality to be recognised, strengthened and given expression - general motivation and a positive attitude to life were to replace resignation and a basic mood of depression. The higher aim was to work on a striving for autonomy and individuation that had been blocked in childhood. The therapy was shown to be successful when the patient himself arranged for further psychotherapeutic treatment and, after seven years of almost uninterrupted in-patient life, progressed to being an out-patient.

Keyword(s): Case-study, addiction, individual-music-therapy.

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