The Relevance of Music Therapy for Psychotherapy and Personal Development

Journal/Book: Constructivism in the Human Sciences. 1999; 4: 87-102.

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to descrbe the role of music therapy in the healing process, considering that the human being's nonverbal knowledge is based on sensory and emotional memory. This kind of memeory is accesible only through subjective sensations and behaviors, and music, as a sensorial means, could facilitate this. At the same time, the author considers the metaphorical process by which the semantic connections, necessary for understanding, are established. Since musical and linguistic ways of intelligence are constructed by exploring and using the auditory system, which treat sequential events in a temporal dimension, then metaphors could be constructed between these two areas, using both parallel and sequential information processing to find personal meaning. Metaphors, imagery, and emotional symbols elicited by music experiences represent a means to explore one's inner world for therapeutic change and personal development. With clinical GIM vignette.

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