E-Book of Articles - World Federation of Music Therapy

Turry, Alan: Performance and Product ....
importance is that deep down he feels hopelessly unlovable and defective,
so he seeks to create an ideal self through the pursuit of celebrity and
external success. He constantly depends on others for approval and
recognition. It is very difficult to establish trusting, intimate relationships
for a person struggling with these issues.
Lasch, a psychoanalyst and social critic, wrote in his seminal book,
"The Culture of Narcissism", that this kind of personality structure is
indicative of our contemporary society. It is not an isolated phenomenon to
be found only in pathological states, but is created by the values and
systems of our culture and is therefore present in all of us to a greater or
lesser degree. Contemporary American culture places a high value on image
(over substance), celebrity (over real accomplishment), self (over
community), immediate gratification (over consideration of links to the past
and the meaning for the future) and commercial success (over intrinsically
meaningful work). He feels that these are symptoms of a lack of true
emotional connection and belonging among people. In his view, we are all
susceptible to these feelings of emptiness or inadequacy, and to combat
them by yearning for fame or external recognition. It may be helpful for the
music therapist to look at these phenomena in a broad sense, that there is a
continuum where potentially every client who seeks to perform may have
these issues lurking somewhere. It is also important for the therapist to see
if his own motivations to perform with clients is stemming from this very
same issue-his own desire to be recognized publicly as a defense against
feelings of inadequacy or emptiness. It may be a countertransference
reaction- that he is experiencing something lacking emotionally in the
relationship with his client and is dealing with it by deciding to perform- or
is acting on the clients unspoken desire to perform.
Despite the fact that the external validation that comes from public
acknowledgement does not vanquish these feelings of emptiness and
inadequacy, performing may be an effective component of music therapy
treatment with this kind of client. Kohut, the renowned psychoanalyst who
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