23.7. 1993 Vitoria-Gasteiz / Spain - World Federation of Music Therapy

narrative envelope' as a basic psychodynamic building
block of the infant's representational world (Stern,
1992). Emotions are thus regarded as integral to
motivational structures, which are in turn, fundamental
modes of development.(Kernberg, 1976; Emde, 1988;
Emde et al, 1991; Stern, 1977,1985,1992; Trevarthen,
1974,1987,1990a,1992a;). Trevarthen summarises
this aptly:
'Emotions are regulations, not products, of
psychological activites. They are CAUSES, not
effects, of perception and action. (Trevarthen, 1992a)
Part II.
Music therapy as a treatment for autistic children spans
some 40 years (Toigo, 1992; Robarts, 1993). Music
therapy was generally observed to provide a means of
'two-way communication' (Alvin, 1976) and to 'form a
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bridge between the (autistic) child's inner world and
external reality'.
Psychological and neurological research has shown
that, in the case of the child with autism, primary and
secondary dyadic organization is impaired; the
'emotional partnership' of mother and infant becomes
increasingly disturbed and distorted in terms of these
specifically musical forms I have mentioned; the
mutuality of mother-infant basic emotional
communication or protoconversation is difficult to
establish or maintain.
In his Theory of Autism, founded on the views of Kanner
(1943) and Bosch (1970), Peter Hobson defines the
autistic child as having 'a biologically based impairment
of affective-conative relatedness with the environment,
which has especially far-reaching implications for their
social relations.' He points out that 'autistic children