Instrument-breast: A psychoanalytic view on musicians’ perception of instruments

Abstract

ABSTRACT Playing music can be a form of symbolization and helpful in processing emotions. Research shows that therapists use music in clinical settings both as music therapy and as an adjunct therapy to talk therapy. However, unlike other forms of art, music is an objectless form of art, which makes it strikingly similar to inner subjective experiences. This means that the role musical instruments play to connect the two objectless sides is important but is difficult to define causation between the two. The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative research was to understand the role of the musical instrument and the role it plays as the transitional object for adults; the instrument was used as the breast object, in line with Klein’s Object Relations Theory. There were 20 interviews with musicians of different ages, instruments, and skill levels to understand the experiences alongside the breast object. The results from the research reveal that participants anthropomorphized their musical instruments and subjectively perceived them as possessing parental attributes and the ones associated with romantic partners. The result can help inform therapists working with patients who have some musical skills to instill an endopsychic structure and repair the impacts of insecure attachment styles.