Dissertation - World Federation of Music Therapy

second category (analogous to ‘interpersonal core conflicts’ in psychodynamic
theory). 24
Ruud (2003) has outlined how affect consciousness, script theory and self-psychology
may serve as a theoretical framework for BMGIM. Scenes are evoked and scripts are
activated in the imagery of BMGIM, and this gives an opportunity to explore the
underlying and often unconscious dynamics of a client. Scenes and scripts are two
levels of organization for a person’s emotional experience. The scene is an
emotionally charged experience including persons, time, place, action, while the script
(or ‘model scene’) is the organizing structure behind the scene, determining whether
the scene is experienced as pleasant or unpleasant. Core scenes are often described as
initially good or pleasant scenes that are transformed into unpleasant scenes.
Emotions seem to have a core function in the transformation of scripts, however both
a ‘heating’ and the eventual ‘burning’ of a (maladaptive) script requires that the client
can tolerate also difficult emotions. Both emotional engagement and cognitive
processing are necessary for a permanent script change. Ruud postulates that BMGIM
“offers a way to intensify this process, something most BMGIM therapists have
experienced quite often.” (Ruud 2003, p. 122).
The metaphors of “scenes” and “scripts” lead us to broader psychological theories of
narrative and to Ricoeur’s theory of mimesis.
3.5.2 McAdams critical constructivist theory of identity
Ricoeur (1977) suggested that the understanding of “the person as a text” could be a
proper base for psychoanalysis. Sarbin found that narratives might serve as a new root
metaphor (Sarbin 1986, in Hougaard 2004). McAdams (1996) suggested that a
person’s life may be understood as a narrative text, and that narratives create meaning
and coherence in a person’s identity. McAdams is a critical constructionist, which
means that he thinks there is a core self related to the subject position of a person
(Hougaard 2004, p. 561). However, McAdams makes a clear distinction between the
‘I’ and the ‘Me’ (William James’ ‘duplex self’): “The I may be viewed as the process
24 ’Schema’ and ’script’ are concepts used in interpersonal psychodynamic theory with a somewhat
different meaning. Horowitz (1988) imported these concepts from cognitive psychology into his model
of intra-psychological representations of self-with-others. For a discussion of interpersonal schemas
and scripts and their use in music therapy research, see Hannibal (2002).
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