Exploring Relationships Between Mary Priestley's Life and Work

Abstract

Analytical Music Therapy pioneer, Mary Priestley, has made a substantial contribution to the development of music therapy. Her writings have provided an insightful synthesis of the theories of Freud, Jung and Klein, and have formed a crucial bridge between psychoanalytic theory and music therapy. Priestley created ways of interpreting unconscious processes as manifested through musical improvisation, which have influenced music therapists throughout the world whether or not they strictly adhere to the Analytical Music Therapy approach. The purpose of this paper was to examine the life and work of Mary Priestley and to explore the relationships between them. In this paper I argued that biography mediates and influences theory construction and clinical practice and that this influence is reciprocal. Furthermore, it was suggested that this type of research has implications for music therapists in terms of making them more conscious of how their own personal context impacts theory, clinical practice, education, training and research. Keywords: Analytical Music Therapy – Biography – Epistemological standpoint – Feminism – Mary Priestley