Clinical Applications of Music Therapy in Psychiatry

Specific aspects of the music therapy relationship with psychiatric patients, Jos De Backer and Jan Van Camp; music therapy as holding and re-organizing work with schizophrenic and psychotic patients, Inge Nygaars Pedersen; music therapy with psychiatric in-patients - a case study with a young schizophrenic man, Bent Jensen; the meaning of music - from the client's perspective, Brynjulf Stige; direction and use of the musical transference relationship, Eliane Streeter; psychoanalytically informed music therapy in psychiatry, Susanne Metzner; investigating the value of music therapy in psychiatry -developing research tools arising from clinical perspectives, Helen Odell-Miller; vocal improvization in analytically-oriented music therapy with adults, Diane Austin; relaxing through pain and anxiety at the extremities of life - applications of music therapy in childbirth and older adulthood, Suzanne Hanser; working through loss and mourning in music therapy, Chava Sekeles; the music which underpins pivotal moments in guided imagery and music, Denise Erdonmez-Grocke; analysis of musical improvizations to understand and work with elements of resistance in a client with anorexia nervosa, Britta Vinkler Frederiksen; music therapy and the meaning of affect regulations for psychomatic patients, Mechtild Langenberg; the sound of music in the dimming, anguished world of Alzheimer's disease, May Gaertner; reflections on music in music therapy, Jan Van Camp.

`provides an articulate discussion surrounding the components and the quality of the therapeutic relationship involving the patient, the music, and the music therapist. The writers lead the reader through a hallway of psychiatric terms such as transference, release, and containment, all within the context of the music therapist's perspective. They emphasize the importance of music therapists' personal expertise in the musical instruments they choose for use with patients. They highlight a respect for one's limitations and fears in stressing that ""music therapists be able to analyze and work through personal fears of loss of control in order to deal in a therapeutic way with psychiatric patients"" (p. 20). They state that the musical experience is necessary in helping the patients acquire the insight needed to work through conflict.

Through the variety of clinical presentations offered by this international forum of music therapy professionals, the reader has witnessed a rich balance and blending of psychotherapeutic theory and clinical music therapy in action. The range of contributions, although at times perhaps more reflective of the international approach to music therapy with its emphasis on music improvistaion, nonetheless makes a serious contribution to the annals of muscia therapy literature in the psychiatric setting. The benefits of reading this anthology to those serving the needs of the psychiatric client will endure long after the settling of first reflections.'