E-Book of Articles - World Federation of Music Therapy

Sutton, Julie; Beyond the Ordinairy
1. Of these four main perspectives, the first relates to personal
narrative and is linked to environment across three areas. My paper
has evolved from professional and personal experiences of working as
a music therapist in Northern Ireland for the past twelve years. There
is a perspective in which events have affected community response to
change and the awareness that I have been part of this community. I
have also experienced the impact of visiting Bosnia three times since
December 1996. I currently work as clinical supervisor with therapists
working in Mostar.
2. A second perspective takes into account the ways in which there have
been changes in approach to the effects of psychological stress or
trauma. These changes have had roots in psychology and
psychoanalytic thinking leading to the development in 1980 of a
definition of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) 11 . From this point
thinking has refined further in relation to increased clinical
observation, clinical experience and research. Earlier writers had
hypothesised that PTSD was as a result of 'normal' (we might say
"ordinary"), adaptive response to trauma. Yet literature suggested
that of those exposed to trauma, while experiencing the effects of
this exposure, surprisingly few developed PTSD 12 . What seemed to be
critical in relation to the development of PTSD was the perceived
severity of threat to survival and personal impact of the shock 13 .
11
Andreasen, N. C. (1980) "Posttraumatic stress disorder" In: H. Kaplan, A.M. Freedman, B.
J. Sadock (eds) Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, 3 rd Edition, Vol. 2 Baltimore,
Williams & Williams pp1517-1525
12
This can range from 10%-30% in most studies. See:
Davidson, J. R. T., Hughes, D., Blazer, D., George, L. K. (1991) "Posttraumatic stress
disorder in the community: an epidemiological study" Psychol. Med., 21, pp1-9
Helzer, J.E., Robins, L. N., McEvoy, L. (1987) "Posttraumatic stress disorder in the general
population" New England Journal of Medicine, 317, pp1630-4
13
Van der Kolk, B. A., van der Hart, O., Burbridge, J. (1998) "Approaches to the Treatment
of PTSD"
Ursano, R. J., McCaughley, B. G., Fullerton, C. S. (eds) (1994) Individual and community
responses to trauma and disaster London, Cambridge University Press
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