Dissertation - World Federation of Music Therapy

our analyses. For it is only by opening ourselves to the sensuous, emotional,
creative, and processual aspects of musical meaning that we can have any
chance of understanding how it is that music moves us.” (Aksnes 2001, p. 101)
3.6.3 Music as metaphor in music therapy theory
With his theory of analogy Smeijsters has formulated a general theory of music
therapy, with the purpose of 'bridging the gap' between music in psychotherapy and
music in special education.
The theory of music as metaphor is a more narrow and specific clinical theory
describing a) the psychological equivalence of musical elements – music as metaphor,
b) how clients present their music experiences verbally using metaphors – metaphors
of music (experience), and how these metaphors have clinical value and significance
as information on the client's sense of self. The metaphorical dimension of musical
elements was presented above, related to Bruscia’s IAPs. There are only few studies
of metaphors of music in the music therapy literature, and only two of the authors
relate to the cognitive theory of metaphors (Bonde 2000; Jungaberle 1999, 2001).
However, metaphoric projection is a very common feature in music therapy practice.
In active music therapy metaphors are extensively used in the verbal dialogue on the
improvisations. Examples: “It was like being in a witches’ cauldron”, “I felt beyond
time and space”, “The melody hit me right in the heart”. The “playing rules” of
Analytically Oriented Music Therapy are often metaphorical (Pedersen 2002).
Examples: “Play how you feel right now”, “Play the animal from your dream”. An
analysis of these metaphors not only shows very clearly, how clients experience the
music, but also how they experience themselves, and how they may (not) benefit from
music therapy.
From a more theoretical point of view Aigen (2002) suggested the metaphors of
“Groove” and “Vital drive”, as proposed by Keil and Feld (1994) as well suited to
describe musical processes in clinical situations. Vital drive may be considered an
aspect of groove, and Keil describes how the rhythm section of a jazz group may
produce different types of vital drive to support a soloist in his more or less
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