Dissertation - World Federation of Music Therapy

Within this study musical understanding is understood essentially as metaphorical (as
in Cook (1990)), based on the experience of “the musical body” (Aksnes 2001), and it
is shown how metaphor has clinical and theoretical relevance in music therapy.
This study is the first to apply Paul Ricoeur’s hermeneutic theories of metaphor and
narrative on experiential material from BMGIM session series. Based on Ricoeur’s
ideas three levels of metaphors in BMGIM were suggested and exemplified by the
clinical literature. The levels were called 1. The narrative episode; 2. The narrative
configuration of the ego and the self; 3. The complete narrative. In the empirical study
of the imagery in 53 music-listening periods these metaphor levels were identified and
reframed as core categories and subcategories, among other categories grounded in
the data. Ricoeur’s theory of mimesis was used in the analysis of image configuration
and as a theoretical framework for the understanding of the participants’ therapeutic
process. A summarizing discussion of the relevance of Ricoeur’s theory to BMGIM
theory follows after a discussion of how the three levels of metaphors and the
categorization of the imagery may relate to existing categorizations of images and
narrative structures.
Goldberg (2002, p. 360) defines “music, imagery, and emotion as the primary
elements of the BMGIM experience.” “Imagery” includes “images in all sensory
modalities…” as understood to be visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile; and
“… kinaesthetic images, body sensations, feelings, thoughts and noetic images (an
intuitive sense of imaginal events that arise outside of other imagery modes.” (Ibid.)
With slight variations in the wording this definition is a standard categorization, found
in GIM course manuals or introduction folders and used to explain “imagery” to
clients as well as students. Grocke (1999) suggested a more comprehensive
categorization system with 15 categories of experiences: 1. Visual experiences, 2.
Memories, 3. Emotions and feelings, 4. Body sensations, 5. Body movements, 6.
Somatic imagery, 7. Altered auditory experiences, 8. Associations with the music and
transference to the music, 9. Abstract imagery, 10. Spiritual experiences, 11.
Transpersonal experiences, 12. Archetypal figures, 13. Dialogue, 14. Aspects of the
Shadow or Anima or Animus, 15. Symbolic shapes and images (for Grocke’s
complete description of the categories, see Appendix 9.1). All categories of imagery
suggested by Goldberg and 14 of Grocke’s 15 categories are present in the material of
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