Music, Art & Mental Health (art theory)

I've written something about this before; and maybe this should be in the 'reasoned debate' section, but I think it sits better here. (Put it down as humble 'art theory' if you like!!) Something for the artists.

To try and say something briefly – I think that art can be particularly positive for your mental health, music in particular. Quite a lot has been done on the therapeutic effects of 'instrumental' music in calming us, promoting positive feelings etc. For instance, Britain's famous 'Knebworth' concerts have often been put on in order to benefit the 'Nordoff-Robbins' charity which has done a lot of work to heal trauma, isolation and 'emotional alienation' through working with music with children and adults.

However, I think less has been written or discussed about the therapeutic value of 'lyric-based' music..... the power of music with WORDS as well as harmonies.

For me, this is a critical issue – where it is the power of music with particularly strong words in moments of despair, confusion, trauma and anxiety to reach you and to help you heal. For example, within states of 'Psychosis', it can be impossible to 'think', to function or communicate on the normal range of human interaction, and you become isolated, locked in your own world, bewildered, desperate and terrified. On top of this, to the outside world you are just plain 'mad' and nothing you can say or do can convince people that there is a real tiny human being, a real 'voice' inside you.

This is where another 'voice' – the voice of a Vedder, a Townshend, a Lennon, a Springteen, a Tori Amos can come in and help you, rescue you. Because in a psychotic state your reasoning and very thinking is disrupted, corrupted, twisted – even if some of this can also be a 'revelatory' state in the same way that 'visionaries' of the past perceived things in a heightened altered state (there's not much room for this in modern life unfortunately!!) What strong singing with strong words can do is to enter into your reasoning, your 'brain', your distant mind, and provide some building blocks for more functional reasoning – ideas, words, thoughts which you can build on, perspectives which can reach you and carry you back to safety.

I have always found within psychotic states that NOTHING can reach you if it doesn't speak directly to where you actually are – no amount of medicine, chat, talking or ideas can reach you on the 'earth' if you are actually on the moon. What you need to hear is sounds from the moon – the sound of something 'right where you are'. If you hear a story, words, singing from a place which seems to be about a place where you are – which seems able to describe exactly what you are feeling, despite your alienation and confusion – then you can grab hold of it, run with it – and listen for more. It can be a guide back to the shore.....

The 'voice' in particular I think can have a reassuring and calming effect in these states – voice is one of the first things people with hearing pick up from their parents – pre linguistic, pre reasoning, pre reading obviously. So, in states of psychic isolation, a strong musical voice with words you understand can not only bring understanding, but with the music can also soothe wounds, bring you 'down' from traumatic heightened states, and crucially help you to communicate again with the outside world, with increased insight, understanding and thought. Having a musical 'script' to draw on – to play in a loop when the world is collapsing around you, really can save your life.

Not sure where this thread is going – but it is more about the theories of art, theories of art and therapy than it is about reasoned debate I think, so if anyone wants to add their own experiences ideas or views about the healing power of art, I would be interested to hear from them. (If this thread gets moved to the Moving Train I will probably delete it by the way!!)