Dissertation - World Federation of Music Therapy

Hodenberg (1993) presented two case studies in which music therapy was used with
patients who had tumours. One patient received active therapy, the other receptive
therapy. From the author’s morphological perspective active and receptive music
therapy are complementary and may be used at the discretion of the music therapist.
Two other internationally well-known receptive music therapy models besides
BMGIM are both of German origin. Schwabe developed the so-called Regulative
Musiktherapie (Regulative Music Therapy) (Schwabe 1982, 2000; Wosch 2002,
2004). However, RMT is primarily used as a group format in psychiatry, and the use
of RMT has not been reported with medical/cancer patients.
The other well-known model is Leuner’s Guided Affective Imagery (GAI, German:
Katathymes Bilderlebniss, kB) (Leuner 1984). BMGIM was in its early years inspired
by GAI, which also included music for diagnostic purposes (Guided Affective
Imagery with Music (GAIM), Musikalisch-kathathymes Bilderlebniss (mkB)) (Bonny
2002). There are no reports on the use of GAIM with cancer patients, however
Möhlenkamp (1994, 1995) compared the effects of relaxation, active music therapy
and receptive music therapy, inspired by both GAIM and BMGIM, in a
psychosomatic ward (n = 31). The experiment was conducted with patients suffering
from somatoform disturbances. Twenty female and eleven male subjects (age between
20-29 or 30-59) were treated for two days and randomly assigned to one of two
conditions: a) relaxation exercise + active, individual improvisation, b) relaxation +
receptive music therapy (modified BMGIM). In the condition involving active
improvisation, idiophones with definite pitches were used. In receptive music therapy
Bach’s Double Concerto for Violin, Oboe and Strings (BWV 1060) and Dvorak’s
Symphony nr. 9, 2nd movement were used. Results demonstrated that receptive music
therapy evoked and allowed the elaboration of reflections and emotions. Active music
therapy (free) improvisation was experienced as a challenge, leading to modification
of moods and decrease of anxious depression and fatigue. In comparison receptive
music therapy encouraged introspection, especially by patients who met verbal
communication with strong defences.
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