Projective Identification in Music Therapy

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(object).

The boyfriend has unconscious feelings of anger that he cannot bear to deal with so provokes his girlfriend to feel that anger for him, he has had a hard day at work, he made a big mistake and now his job is potentially on the line but he is avoiding the issue, after all, it wasn’t his fault the computer crashed losing all his work, he ignores the fact he hadn’t saved his work. He unconsciously projects his work related anger into his girlfriend, as experiencing this anger outside of himself can be less threatening than the internal experience. This projected provocation could have been something along the lines of asking her why dinner wasn’t ready yet.

His girlfriend starts acting short tempered and passive aggressive towards her boyfriend, she has unconsciously been provoked, and is now snapping at him, claiming he never has any time for her, and that she is the only one who ever does anything around the house. Perhaps he should make his own dinner, then he would know when it would be ready.

The boyfriend now experiences his own anger that he has projected onto his girlfriend as coming from her. He now identifies with his own anger, but sees it as belonging to her, he cannot rationalise her anger and victimises himself, he doesn’t own the anger. “stop yelling at me”

Onlookers may not see the asymmetrical conflict where the object (Girlfriend) claims not to have the angry behaviour that the subject (Boyfriend) claims they have. What onlookers see may be perceived as superficial, but there’s much more going on at an unconscious level which is why projective identification can be difficult to recognise.

As Patrick Casement says: “Unfortunately, it is not easy to get a clear understanding of projective identification from the literature alone” (1985 p.80)

To really understand Projective Identification, I think you need to know about the theory, but also to experience it happening, although you may not even realise it is happening at the time, you may do so upon reflection, or in discussion with a supervisor.

PI can be a potential key to therapeutic understanding, especially where the therapist is able to tolerate and contain the unwanted, negative aspects of the patient’s self over time.

The manifestation of Projective Identification in a Music Therapy Context

Why is the concept of Projective Identification important to understand and work with when in a music therapy setting?

Our job as music therapists is to work with our clients, to work with any difficult emotions they are dealing with, whether they are on the surface or at an unconscious level. Since Projective Identification happens at an unconscious level, we need to learn to be able to recognize when it is happening, and what we can do to deal with it and ultimately contain it.

Mary Priestley writes on the therapist-patient relationship that it should aim to be “a committed, non-grasping but holding relationship; at the same time, it is a holding back to receive the patient’s projected parts of herself that she cannot yet integrate creatively and fruitfully within her psyche.” She goes on to say… “Her destructive projections can be taken right into the therapist’s inner life where they will war against the very person who is there to help her.” … “When a patient is battling seriously with a crisis in growth it is possible for the therapist to experience very testing levels of frustration, rage, despair and other difficult emotions. At some times he may have to learn to become aware of certain weaknesses in himself and then there can be significant growth on both sides if he rises to the challenge that this presents. For this reason it is extremely helpful for the therapist to have a good supervisor in his early years of practice”

Music Therapy offers the client an opportunity to express any difficult emotions through the use of musical instruments and in doing so can potentially (but not necessarily) avoid the defence of silence. This gives the therapist a chance to respond through the use of music too, creating an opportunity for non-verbal communication. This is especially useful when the client cannot find the words to express any difficult emotions they may be experiencing – this could be due to an array of reasons, for example, they physically may not be able to do so, or if they are verbal, they simply may not want to talk about it, or if their feelings are unconscious, they will have no awareness of them.

Jos De Backer and Julie Sutton say “the patient himself is often caught off guard by this emotional outburst and does not know how it will evolve” –De Backer and Sutton p.343

The therapist in turn will guide these outbursts, providing some structure, at the same time reassuring the client that they have been heard.

This process is called Containment.

Containment

Tony Wigram discusses Containment in Music Therapy and provides a musical example to demonstrate what he means:

“Containing implies a different process where the client’s music is quite chaotic and may also be quite loud. Therapeutically, the client needs to be allowed to be chaotic, noisy, exaggerated (a good example would be an out-of-control child having a ‘musical/emotional’ tantrum). The therapist provides a musical container for the client’s music, playing strongly and confidently enough to be heard by the client. One musical idea that can work well in therapy is to play at opposite ends of the piano with strong, stable octaves. Many other types of music could act as a container for the client’s music, but it needs to be structured music that provides a pattern.” Wigram p.97

Tony Wigram accompanies this paragraph with a musical example. In this, you can hear the client playing the cymbals, drums and xylophone, and the therapist on the piano. Listen carefully, the client’s playing is somewhat chaotic and disordered and the therapist is playing at both ends of the piano, playing octaves in each hand so that the high and low registers can still be heard by the client. The therapist plays in a stable and structured manner, providing a musical frame for the client, ultimately, containing him musically.

*play*

The therapist didn’t play too much but it was effective and audible over the client’s chaos.

Making