Book Review: Joel Kroeker, Jungian Music Psychotherapy: When Psyche Sings and Paula Valerio (ed.), Introduction to Countertransference in Therapeutic Practice: A Myriad of Mirrors

Abstract

a reflexive act. Zubillaga-Pow uses Lacan’s reflexive act to explore enjoyment, resistance and ways of thinking about the function of affects as we listen. I found the introduction of Lacan’s reflexive act interesting but discussion on enjoyment/ resistance for me was quite abstract and (perhaps somewhat defensively!) I was reluctant to think about this in terms of enjoyment in clinical sessions. In chapter 9, Stephen Downes compares the similarities of masochism and sentimentalism through a discussion of ‘Barthes’s Schumann and Schumann’s Chopin’ (p. 165). This chapter was very interesting but stimulated fewer questions or considerations about how these interpretations of psychoanalytic theories related to my practice as a Music Therapist. This posed an interesting question as a Music Therapist reading the book – why did the use of psychoanalytic theory at times seem to be less meaningful and did not resonate or connect with the ways I experience and make use of psychoanalysis as a Music Therapist? While other times, the use of psychoanalytic theory stimulated a sense of the great potential for dialogue and collaboration between musicologists and music therapists using psychoanalysis as a shared approach to explore the many roles and functions of music in culture, society and human relationships. Chapters 8 and 9 also brought more sharply into focus another question that had been present for me throughout the book: What is different, or can be different, about the role or function of psychoanalytic theory when applied to musical works of art rather than therapeutic music making (including pre-composed music) in music therapy? What is different when psychoanalysis is applied to an artefact (something that has gone through the process of creation with the view to being shared with unknown others outside of the boundaries, and intimacy, of an established and/or mutual relationship) rather than when used to gain an understanding of interpersonal and intrapsychic processes in therapeutic work? Again these questions, and the corresponding differences and overlaps, strike me as areas where musicologists and music therapists could work together to explore these complex ideas in collaboration which would be of benefit to both. Overall, this is a dense and theoretical book, and not always an easy read – I will have to revisit some chapters! However, reading this book has been an enriching experience. I have been challenged to think more deeply about the music in music therapy and reflected on questions that might be of interest to other music therapists such as, is there a music therapy echo chamber which affirms a particular view of the ways music can be used therapeutically? Or does the music therapy profession privilege the music therapist’s understanding of psychoanalysis and music? This book has reminded me that there are many ways that psychoanalysis can be used as an approach to think about culture, human experiences and creativity, and has brought me into contact with other views, possibilities and ways of relating to and through music as an expressive art form.