To be human is to have music embedded both in our physiology and our psychology. From before birth until our final breath, our hearts, lungs and other organs perform an intricate rhythm that is all our own. Our brains, too, have the innate ability to receive and appreciate music of unlimited styles and complexities. In everyday life, we are constantly encountering music in our environment, and every important life event is marked with music. It comes as no surprise, then, that music can have something to say when conversation turns to depression and suicide. The following will attempt to bring to the forefront some issues that may arise at the intersection of music and mental illness.
‘Sad Music’ is more complicated than it sounds
When an individual is experiencing a clinical depression, can music play a role in helping to alleviate symptoms? We all know that our emotions resonate with the emotive qualities of music. It seems like a safe assumption that listening to sad music would make a person sad, and being exposed to happy music would brighten one’s mood. However, it turns out that while this is often the case, in reality things are a fair bit more complicated than that.
If a depressed individual is listening to a lot of sad, depressing music (identified either by the tonality, or ‘feel’ of the music, or by the depressing content of the lyrics), it could be that the music is indeed ‘feeding’ the depression. But we might also consider the benefits of sad music. Studies show that sad music might actually evoke positive emotions. One explanation for this may be that “unlike sadness in daily life, sadness experienced through art actually feels pleasant, possibly because the latter does not pose an actual threat to our safety.” Added to this is the feeling that there is someone out there (the singer or songwriter, or the numerous other fans) who knows exactly how you feel.
Our emotional response to music is very individual. Certainly not every ‘happy song’ is guaranteed to improve your mood. Personally, I find a lot of cheerful songs to be depressing in their emptiness and banality, and I identify far better with Joni Mitchell’s idea of ‘comfort in melancholy.’ A song that seems depressing may in fact be cathartic and soothing. Some of my own favourites over the years that fit this category are REM’s album ‘Automatic for the People’, the beautiful but tragic sound of Over the Rhine, Brahms’ chamber music, and every album by Winnipeg band The Weakerthans.
Music and Young People
There is a reason why an elderly person with Alzheimer’s, who cannot tell me their first name, can easily sing the lyrics to numerous songs from, say, the 1930s. The songs they know so well are the ones that were popular at the time of their youth. These songs were hardwired into their systems because they were singing them while they were falling in (or out of) love; when they were realizing what the world was all about; when their very identities were being formed. Indeed, it was the music itself that did a lot of the identity-forming. It is no different for the young people of today. Music is very important to this age group – it facilitates the expression of emotions (in ways that are usually helpful, but sometimes harmful), and it can also inform the way a person relates to others (in ways that foster a sense of belonging, or fuel anti-social tendencies).
There are numerous studies suggesting that a preference for aggressive music, such as heavy metal, indicates a risk factor for suicide amongst adolescents. Ruth Bright, a veteran Music Therapist, states that “This does not imply a cause and effect mechanism, but that the same young person who prefers heavy metal may also be someone who is at risk of suicide.” This is a reminder to focus not on the symptom but rather on the underlying basis of the illness.
Musicians and Mental Illness
Robert Schumann and Ludwig van Beethoven; Ernest Hemingway and Silvia Plath; Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse. All reportedly suffered from serious mental illness, and much has been made of the idea of the “tormented artist” who creates enduring, resonant works of art. However, there may be more fiction than fact to this idea. In general, a serious depression will reduce a person’s potential for creative output, and a manic or schizophrenic episode will scatter creative efforts so as to render them unusable. It may often be true (but may be over-generalizing) that a personality that tends to be vulnerable to mental illness might also tend to exhibit enhanced creative traits, along with other markers such as greater sensitivity, empathy, or perfectionism. My own experiences of clinical depression, during my high school years, were marked by weeks of virtually music-less existence, when I had no interest in turning on the radio, much less sitting down at the piano. Memories of those times have helped me identify with patients who find themselves in that space.
Music Therapy
Much could be said here about the potential for Music Therapy with someone at risk of suicide. Music Therapy may involve song-writing, where a person can choose words reflecting strong feelings that could not otherwise be spoken; it may involve improvisation, where a person can express emotions that cannot be put into words at all; or it may involve choosing to hear a particular song that speaks to their current emotional state. All of these methods can give the therapist a deep understanding of the person, and may raise warning flags for self-harm that can then be addressed and worked with.
Further to the discussion (above) of sad music, Music Therapists do not shy away from the use of music that may carry strong emotions. “Contemporary Music Therapy is interested in music that is more closely related to the feelings of a patient, expressing the inner turmoil of the patient rather than being an antidote for it.” This approach fits well with the recovery model of mental health, and reflects a mindset that I strive to incorporate into my own work.
Having said all of this, the most important element of Music Therapy is not, in fact, the music itself. As Jozef Peuskens puts it:
“In clinical practice, not only is the composition of the therapeutic agent of importance, but also the presence, the attitude and the competence of the therapist. Rather than being therapeutic by just being a piece of art, music achieves its therapeutic efficacy by the way it is integrated and in the way it functions in the therapeutic relationship between the Music Therapist and the patient.”
Music has work to do!
by Joel Klassen, MTA
