Music Therapy: a methodological approach in the mental health

Abstract: My report will be centered upon some considerations about my own experience in music therapy within the mental health field. The clinical aspects refer to two different institutional structures; the psychiatric hospital and the mental health day hospital. The first one concerns the in-patients and all the problems connected with this kind of structure, namely 'double bind' which creates a further condition of psychosis either for the patients or the working team. The second one implies the treatment of rehabilitation in the psychiatric field. I refer to an oriented music therapy methodology which operates within the above mentioned working structures on a non-verbal communication level. The music therapy intervention states two main problems: (a) the improvement of the patient's ability to communicate (b) the rising of emotional attitudes as envy or jealousy on the side of the other members of the working team once they are in touch with the music therapy events. If we do not take into account the above-mentioned problems, even music therapy runs the risk of becoming a spreading technique with regards to the quantity of its interventions. Conversely, it will not achieve real therapeutic results with regards to quality as the psychosis is nothing but recomposing the patient's divided parts. Then music therapy can be an overall therapeutic project for mental health in Italy as well as in the other member countries of the European Economic Community. This paper will be published by the BSMT late l992, price on application.

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Keyword(s): Methodology, mental-health.

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