DEB BRADLEY
Deborah Bradley received a Ph.D. in Sociology and Equity Studies in Education from OISE/UT in 2006. She was Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 2006 – 2010; she also taught at the University of Toronto from 1997-2005 and 2010 – 2014. She retired from UW-Madison in 2010 and continues to research issues of equity and social justice in music education. Dr. Bradley’s research has been published in many noted music education journals, including Philosophy of Music Education Review, Journal of Aesthetic Education, Music Education Research, and Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, and several Oxford book chapters. She also serves with Scott Goble as Co-Editor for the journal, Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education.
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When Music Haunts: Trauma and Musical Engagement
May Day Group’s Action Ideal III states, “as agents of social change who are locally and globally bound, we create, sustain, and contribute to reshaping musics, ways of knowing music, and spaces where musicing takes place.” In this paper, I interrogate what it means to “know music and the spaces where musicing takes place” when musical engagement is implicated in traumatic experience. Psychologists, music therapists, and music educators often describe the “healing properties” of music that enable individuals to “work through” traumatic memory and post-traumatic stress. Gabrielsson (2011) has documented many such cases, and as a reader and trauma survivor, those stories resonate with me deeply; however, the desire to justify musical engagement as a means for ameliorating traumatic wounds may overly simplify the reality of some traumatic wounding by failing to account for those situations in which musical engagement itself is implicated in the trauma.
Among musicians who have experienced trauma, the dissociation which often accompanies traumatic memory may affect memory and concentration, cause interference, drain energy levels, affect motivation, interpersonal relationships, and self-esteem (Swart, 2009). Swart’s findings align with research which documents how the experience of trauma often lies beyond an individual’s conscious memory but continues to interfere in daily life (Freud, 2003). Traumatic events may not be consciously remembered by the survivor but experienced as recurring, repetitive behavioral phenomena typically associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (Caruth, 1995, 1996; 1997; Rothschild, 2000). Swart (2009) learned, however, through interviews with musicians who had experienced trauma, that their continued engagement with music also led to growth and trauma-catalyzed transformation.
Such is the case in my own experience as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse whose experiences were explicitly tied to my childhood music making. In keeping with the research of Caruth (Caruth, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996), Schwab (2010), and Simon et al. (2000), in this paper I interrogate a philosophical question related to ways of knowing music that implicate trauma. The belief in music’s ability to heal may in part rely on the trauma survivor’s acknowledgment of a past or current experience of trauma, yet trauma itself is experienced as “the response to an unexpected or overwhelming violent event or events that are not fully grasped as they occur, but return later in repeated flashbacks, nightmares, and other repetitive phenomena” (Caruth, 1996, p. 91, emphasis added). This inability to fully acknowledge the traumatic event at the time of its occurrence, or later in its repetitive haunting, creates a pedagogical problem for music teachers who seek to employ music as a means of healing trauma, as well as for learners whose trauma is inextricably linked to music making, because the trauma itself may be inaccessible to conscious memory.
In this paper, I explore what it may mean for music education when 1) music is implicated in the source of the trauma, 2) the trauma itself cannot be acknowledged by the survivor, and 3) when music simultaneously offers a potential path for healing from traumatic experiences in which musical engagement may be inextricable from the trauma itself. While trauma may have life-long debilitating effects on its survivors, working through traumatic memory is not only possible but may lead to life-altering transformations (Herman, 1997). Because of music’s unique capabilities, engaging in music may provide a source for healing without directly addressing the traumatic experience and thus may, in the long term, represent a means for healing traumatic wounds. This suggests that music education as a discipline requires a deeper understanding of the paradoxical ways in which musical engagement may be both the cause of trauma and the means by which individuals may come to terms with, and heal from, their traumatic histories.
References
Caruth, C. (1991, Jan 01). Unclaimed experience: Trauma and the possibility of history. Yale French Studies, 79, 181-192.
Caruth, C. (1993, Apr 01). Violence and time: Traumatic survivals [Article]. Assemblage, 20(April 1993), 24-25. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3181682
Caruth, C. (Ed.). (1995). Trauma: Explorations in memory. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Caruth, C. (1996). Unclaimed experience: Trauma, narrative,and history. John Hopkins University Press.
Freud, S. (2003). Beyond the pleasure principle and other writings (J. Reddick, Trans.). Penguin Books. (1920)
Gabrielsson, A. (2011). Music as therapy (R. Bradbury, Trans.). In Strong experiences in music: Music is much more than just music (pp. 202-221). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199695225.001.0001
Herman, J. L. (1997). Trauma and recovery. BasicBooks.
Rothschild, B. (2000). The body remembers: The psychophysiology of trauma and trauma treatment (1st ed.). W.W. Norton & Co.
Schwab, G. (2010). Haunting legacies: Violent histories and transgenerational trauma. Columbia University Press.
Simon, R. I., Rosenberg, S., & Eppert, C. (2000). Between hope and despair: Pedagogy and the remembrance of historical trauma. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Swart, I. (2009). The influence of trauma on musicians [Dissertation, University of Praetoria]. Praetoria, South Africa. https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/24870/Complete.pdf?sequence=7
Among musicians who have experienced trauma, the dissociation which often accompanies traumatic memory may affect memory and concentration, cause interference, drain energy levels, affect motivation, interpersonal relationships, and self-esteem (Swart, 2009). Swart’s findings align with research which documents how the experience of trauma often lies beyond an individual’s conscious memory but continues to interfere in daily life (Freud, 2003). Traumatic events may not be consciously remembered by the survivor but experienced as recurring, repetitive behavioral phenomena typically associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (Caruth, 1995, 1996; 1997; Rothschild, 2000). Swart (2009) learned, however, through interviews with musicians who had experienced trauma, that their continued engagement with music also led to growth and trauma-catalyzed transformation.
Such is the case in my own experience as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse whose experiences were explicitly tied to my childhood music making. In keeping with the research of Caruth (Caruth, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996), Schwab (2010), and Simon et al. (2000), in this paper I interrogate a philosophical question related to ways of knowing music that implicate trauma. The belief in music’s ability to heal may in part rely on the trauma survivor’s acknowledgment of a past or current experience of trauma, yet trauma itself is experienced as “the response to an unexpected or overwhelming violent event or events that are not fully grasped as they occur, but return later in repeated flashbacks, nightmares, and other repetitive phenomena” (Caruth, 1996, p. 91, emphasis added). This inability to fully acknowledge the traumatic event at the time of its occurrence, or later in its repetitive haunting, creates a pedagogical problem for music teachers who seek to employ music as a means of healing trauma, as well as for learners whose trauma is inextricably linked to music making, because the trauma itself may be inaccessible to conscious memory.
In this paper, I explore what it may mean for music education when 1) music is implicated in the source of the trauma, 2) the trauma itself cannot be acknowledged by the survivor, and 3) when music simultaneously offers a potential path for healing from traumatic experiences in which musical engagement may be inextricable from the trauma itself. While trauma may have life-long debilitating effects on its survivors, working through traumatic memory is not only possible but may lead to life-altering transformations (Herman, 1997). Because of music’s unique capabilities, engaging in music may provide a source for healing without directly addressing the traumatic experience and thus may, in the long term, represent a means for healing traumatic wounds. This suggests that music education as a discipline requires a deeper understanding of the paradoxical ways in which musical engagement may be both the cause of trauma and the means by which individuals may come to terms with, and heal from, their traumatic histories.
References
Caruth, C. (1991, Jan 01). Unclaimed experience: Trauma and the possibility of history. Yale French Studies, 79, 181-192.
Caruth, C. (1993, Apr 01). Violence and time: Traumatic survivals [Article]. Assemblage, 20(April 1993), 24-25. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3181682
Caruth, C. (Ed.). (1995). Trauma: Explorations in memory. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Caruth, C. (1996). Unclaimed experience: Trauma, narrative,and history. John Hopkins University Press.
Freud, S. (2003). Beyond the pleasure principle and other writings (J. Reddick, Trans.). Penguin Books. (1920)
Gabrielsson, A. (2011). Music as therapy (R. Bradbury, Trans.). In Strong experiences in music: Music is much more than just music (pp. 202-221). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199695225.001.0001
Herman, J. L. (1997). Trauma and recovery. BasicBooks.
Rothschild, B. (2000). The body remembers: The psychophysiology of trauma and trauma treatment (1st ed.). W.W. Norton & Co.
Schwab, G. (2010). Haunting legacies: Violent histories and transgenerational trauma. Columbia University Press.
Simon, R. I., Rosenberg, S., & Eppert, C. (2000). Between hope and despair: Pedagogy and the remembrance of historical trauma. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Swart, I. (2009). The influence of trauma on musicians [Dissertation, University of Praetoria]. Praetoria, South Africa. https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/24870/Complete.pdf?sequence=7