We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
THE THERAPEUTIC POTENTIALS OF CREATING AND PERFORMING MUSIC WITH WOMEN IN PRISON: A QUALITATIVE CASE STUDY.
- Authors
O'Grady, Lucy
- Abstract
The aim of this research is to contribute ideas toward the possibilities of what music therapy can be, by examining the therapeutic potentials of creating and performing music within the context of an Australian maximum-security women's prison. The research is an intrinsic qualitative case study of a ten-week creative process that involved seven women in prison who collaboratively created and performed a musical together with artists from a theatre company. In order to examine the therapeutic potentials of creating and performing music, the researcher conducted post-performance interviews with the seven women who were in prison and also wrote session notes throughout the ten-week process. The researcher utilised grounded theory analysis in order to explain the therapeutic potentials of creating and performing music in this case. The main results of the analysis explain how creating and performing music served as a bridge from the "inside" to the "outside." The participating women described a real and symbolic divide between their realities inside prison and the world outside the razor wire. By creating and performing music, the women were able to experience five different ways of shifting outside of their realities in prison, by moving (a) from physical and symbolic "inside" places to "outside" places, (a) from the private to the public, (c) from solitude to togetherness, (d) from a focus on the self to a focus on others, and (e) from subjective thought processes to objective thought processes. The exploration of an outward-directed approach to music experience in this case can help to extend traditional music therapy practices where inward-directed therapeutic shifts are more commonly described.
- Subjects
AUSTRALIA; WOMEN prisoners; GROUNDED theory; MUSIC therapy
- Publication
Qualitative Inquiries in Music Therapy, 2011, Vol 6, p122
- ISSN
1559-7326
- Publication type
Case Study