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

modes - visual, kinesthetic/physical, auditory, tactile,
gustatory, and olfactory. Noetic images also occur. A
noetic image is a sense of knowing that comes outside
of sensory information and is similar to an intuition,
except that it is much stronger. The visual,
kinesthetic/physical and noetic images are most
common and often present in a manner similar to a
waking dream.
The music is central to this process and is, in fact, the
co-therapist. Music provides both a catalyst for creative
image formation and an emotionally supportive
container for the experience. The music creates a
holding space in which the ego can let go to the inner
experience while, at the same time, holding its own
reality. The complex structure and texture, the cycles of
tension and release, and the dynamic richness of all the
elements of music from the Western classical music
tradition provide structure for the experience, sustain
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the inner focus and provide dynamic movement to the
flow of images and feelings. The taped programs
include works of Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Berlioz,
Vaughn-Williams, Mahler, Faure, Wagner, Ravel and
Prokofiev, to name a few.
According to Langer (1980), the most important
function of music is that music can be "true to the life of
feeling in a way that language cannot; for its significant
forms have that ambivalence of content that words
cannot have" (p. 243). Indeed, music symbolizes,
reflects and evokes the ambiguous, fleeting and
conflicting life of feelings and images. Images are
manifestations of the inner emotional life, providing a
bridge between internal and external, feeling and
thinking, self and other, including the collective
unconscious (Goldberg, in press).