Non-Western Practices of Healing-Music and Applications for Modern Psychotherapy

Rsume Although there are ethnic groups and non-European cultures which neither understand illness in a western sense nor use healing-rites in a functional way similar to western therapeutic treatments, it makes sense to investigate whether those practices could be helpful in current psychotherapy. Thus, concerning the basic aspects of music, three aspects are discussed: the anthropological existence-oriented, cognitive structureand contents-oriented, and effectoriented aspects. Furtheron, in investigating the origin of musical meaning three interdepending components are defined: the common physiological and metaphysical, the culture-related, and the individual ones. Finnaly, some examples of non-western healing music in psychotherapy are given, e.g. in practices of shamanism, Chakra-meditation and Taoism. The issue of these investigations is to reveal the effective core of music-assocated healing-rites, to modify them in regard to our culture and to integrate them into a modern system of psychological or psychiatric intervention. Although there are ethnic groups and non-European cultures which neither understand illness in a western sense nor use healing-rites in a functional way similar to western therapeutic treatments, it makes sense to investigate whether those practices could be helpful in current psychotherapy. The issue is to reveal the effective core e.g. of music-associated healing-rites, to modify them in regard to our culture and to integrate them into a modern system of psychological or psychiatric intervention. 77 W. MASTNAK, HEALING-MUSIC AND PSYCHOTHERAPY, IRASM 24 (1993) 1, 77-84 Basic Aspects of Music The variety of music-therapeutic results ensures that the effect of music on the psyche is based on a multifunctional process comprising physiological, emotional, and cognitive factors as well as on anthropological, cultural and individual conditions. The first approach leads to the question whether transcultural invariants of music exist. Three aspects are to be discussed: 1) the anthropological existence-orientated, 2) cognitive structureand contents-orientated and 3) effect-orientated aspects. 1) The Anthropological Existence-Orientated Aspect: The development of culture and the creation of arts point to mankind's essential character. Human life cannot be reduced to what is called basic needs. Definitely related to a mental dimension human life goes beyond the biological basis of life (as e.g. Rene Spitz could prove by his research on hospitalism). Psychological as well as philosophical attempts to confine mentality to a clearcut system of representation and communication failed. For example, neither the philosophical aim to develop a distinct language, avoiding various possibilities of interpretation, by excluding the different experiences of people, nor cognitive-psychological (not cognitive psychology itself) theories which tried to narrow down the psyche to a mere information-consuming system, succeeded. There is a distinct desire to express and to experience life in a way which seems to reach the core, the essence and the sense of being. Where rational reflection comes to an end the symbolic meanings of the arts reveal their significance. Facing the eternal and insoluble questions of life for thousands of years mankind has generated cultural answers, integrating the transcendental sense of artistic symbols, the creative act as a fundamental form of being itself and a deep aesthetic yearning. 2) The Cognitive Structureand