Music Therapy Today - World Federation of Music Therapy

Horesh, T. (2006) “Music is My Whole Life” - The many meanings of music in addicts’ lives. Music Therapy Today
(Online) Vol.VII (2) 291-317. available at http://musictherapyworld.net
MUSIC LISTENING
DURING DRUG USE
which were beyond the scope of the interview’s objective, such as per-
sonal therapeutic and rehabilitation themes .
My research orientation is situated on a junction where music therapy,
popular music studies, sociology of music and psychology of music –
and theories related to addiction - converge.
I am presently analyzing the material gleaned from the 8 interviews. I
would like to present some of my preliminary findings, according to the
main categories I have found, with the relevant theoretical context.
All the interviews were held in Hebrew. In translating the quotations
from the interviews, some of the cultural aspects of slang and addiction
jargon – were lost. I didn’t try to use the English equivalents of addiction
jargon, which is so very typical of social class, geography and ethnicity. I
hope that the authenticity of the quotations will be preserved even so.
In order to better understand the context of the following quotations, I
will again introduce my research subjects, this time through the prism of
the substances they abused.
• Nahum: alcohol, cannabis and heroin
• Yonatan: ecstasy, L.S.D., cannabis, heroin and crack-cocaine
• Ruth: alcohol, ecstasy, L.S.D., cannabis, heroin and crack-cocaine
• Zohar: ecstasy, L.S.D.
• Yelena: alcohol, cannabis, heroin
• Sasha: heroin
• Dima: ecstasy, L.S.D., heroin
• Boris: occasional alcohol and ecstasy, heroin
Results and Discussion
From the narratives we can discern 3 general stages:
Results and Discussion 305