Healing Sounds: An Anthropology of Music Therapy

Abstract

Music therapy has been recognized as a legitimate health practice in Canada since after the Second World War. While research shows the emotional, social and health benefits of music therapy, researchers have failed to agree on the reason music can be beneficial to health. I argue that affect could be the key to understanding the myriad ways in which music, and music therapy, can have a positive effect on health. Through the lens of affect theory, I explore embodiment, relationship-building and aesthetic creation as three areas in which music can allow the harnessing of affect towards health goals. I note music’s powerful affect on the human body and movement, and the ways in which these affects are mobilized towards specific clinical goals. I explore the various human-to-human and human-to-sound relationships that are mobilized, created or strengthened through music therapy interventions, and how they relate to health and to the affect of “becoming”. Finally, I note the strong evidence for musical and aesthetic creation as a part of self-care, both by music therapists and by their clients, and argue for a broader understanding of how creativity impacts health, by allowing people to affect their environments and “become themselves”.