Empathy Pathways: A View from Music Therapy

Description

Many descriptions of empathy revolve around sharing in and understanding another person’s emotions. One separate person gains access to the emotional world of another. An entire worldview holds up this idea. It is individualistic and affirms the possibility of access to other people’s “inner world.” Can we really see inside another, though? And are we discrete, separate selves? How can we best grapple with these questions in the field of music therapy? In response, this book offers four empathy pathways. Two are situated in a constituent approach (that prioritises discrete individuals who then enter into relationships with one another) and two are located in relational approaches (that acknowledge the foundational reality of relationships themselves). By understanding empathy more fully, music therapists, teachers and researchers can engage in ways that are congruent with diverse worldviews and ways of being. Examples used in the book are from active and receptive music therapy approaches as well as from community and clinical contexts, so as to provide clear links to practice. This book will be a valuable resource for academics and postgraduate students within music therapy and allied fields including art therapy, drama therapy, dance/movement therapy, psychology, counselling, occupational therapy and social development studies. Acknowledgements Contents 1 An Introduction to Empathies Empathy is an Expansive Concept A Focus on Emotions Why Dive into an In-Depth Investigation of Empathy? Four Pathways References Part I Insightful Empathy 2 A Stance of Receptivity Positioning Ourselves to Empathise Self-Awareness Motivation, Ability, and Capacity Paying Attention A Non-Judgemental Attitude The Courage to Engage in Playful Risk-Taking References 3 Awareness Through Multifaceted Perceiving Perceiving Emotions Perceiving Another as a Musical Being Perceiving Embodied Resonance Listening Perspectives and Practices Perceiving Unconscious Dynamics Perceiving Spiritual Dimensions Perceiving (in) Contexts Perceiving the Distinctions Between Self and Other Intersubjectivity (The Version That Refers to Shared Agreement About an Objective Reality) References 4 Sharing Emotions Emotional Contagion (Is Not Empathy) The Nature of Affective Empathy Sharing Emotions Through Music References 5 Understanding Emotions Knowing Other Minds Theory of Mind The Direct Social Perception Thesis Psychodynamic Understandings of Other Minds The Nature of Cognitive Empathy Drawing on Self-Knowledge to Understand Another’s Emotions Drawing on Knowledge of the Specific Other and Their Context to Understand Their Emotions Drawing on Generalised Theories to Understand Another’s Emotions Expanding Empathy Through Gathering Knowledge Understanding Complex Emotional Expressions References 6 Responding with Action Empathy Needs to Be Communicated When Communicated Empathy Is Beneficial in Itself When Empathy Is a Starting Point Inaction or Distancing When Empathy Leads to Harm Self-Empathy and Self-Compassion References Part II Translational Empathy 7 A Stance of Honouring Opacity Our Understanding of Others Is Always Incomplete Damaging Forms of Othering Respect for Radical Otherness Curious Humility References 8 Awareness of Translational Processes Communicating Emotions The Vital and Responsive Contributions of All Participants Diversity in the Expression and Interpretation of Emotions Translation is a Mediated and Creative Process Translation in Music Therapy References 9 Responsively Being with Each Other’s Emotional Expressions Being with Another as a Witness Withness in Musical Ambiguity Simultaneously Being Together and Separate References 10 Negotiating Meanings of Emotions Reflexivity Using Imagination and Creativity to Create Emotional Meaning Working with Differences and Conflict Intersubjectivity (The Version that Focusses on Coordination) Negotiation References 11 Responding Through Accompaniment Companionship and Psychosocial Accompaniment Recognition and Affirmation of Empowerment and Expertise Being an Ally Accountability References Part III An Empathising Assemblage 12 A Stance of Acknowledging That We Are Always Already Entangled Strong Relationality Valuing Humans and Non-humans in Relational Webs Interobjectivity (The Version of Intersubjectivity That Includes Interactions with Objects Within Assemblages) Extended Minds Immanence What Are Assemblages? Distributed Agency What Is Meant by “Territorialising”? References 13 Affective Attunement Affects as Intensities Being Affected and Affecting Affect, Emotion, and Feeling Affective Flows in Assemblages Affects and Musicking Travelling and Sticky Affects Ethically Response-able Assemblages References 14 Awareness Through Mapping Relationships Collaborative Mapping Mapping “Things” (as Always-Relational Becoming-Things) Thisness Becoming Agential Cuts (Why These “Things” Rather Than Other “Things”?) Mapping Positions Mapping Processes of Territorialising (and De/Reterritorialising) Mapping Pathways Mapping Interminglings Mapping Affective Flows Mapping Affective Lines of Flight Mapping Response-Ability References 15 Enhancing Response-ability Response-able Access and Inclusion Response-able Services Response-able Material Places and Spaces Response-able Objects Response-able People Response-able Groups, Communities, and Social Networks Response-able Musicking Response-able Concepts and Theories Response-able Recovery-Tracking Exploring Needs Tracking Recovery Response-able Teaching and Researching in Music Therapy References Part IV Relational Empathy 16 A Stance of Recognising That We Are Selfing Through Relationships Valuing Both Relationships and Selves Selfing Participation Is Ontological Intersubjectivity (The Version That Considers Intersubjectivity to Be the Precondition for Subjectivity) Dialogue Is Ontological Co-action Within Confluences Narrative Practices Are Ontological Narratives in Musicking We Become as Selves Who Are Polyphonic Multi-beings Plotting the Path of Relational Empathy References 17 Awareness of Emotions as Co-Storying Relational Development of Emotions Relational Regulation Being in Emotions Emotions as Social Performances Emotions Within Societies and Cultures Relational Understandings of Emotion in Interdependent Cultures Emotions as Stories When Co-Storying is Difficult References 18 Emotions and Meanings in Layers of Co-Storying Making and Reflecting on Emotion Stories What’s This Emotion Story About? What’s the Story Scenario? What’s the Setting of This Emotion Story? What Are the Events in This Emotion Story? What Happened at the End? How Are We Telling This Emotion Story? Were We Reflecting on the Emotion Story as We Were Co-Creating It? Layers of Stories Story Horizons Participating in Horizons of Emotion Co-Storying in Families Participating in Horizons of Emotion Co-Storying Within Cultural and Gendered Practices and Contexts Participating in Horizons of Emotion Co-Storying Within Musicking Practices Participating in Horizons of Emotion Co-Storying Within Health and Illness Practices Participating in Horizons of Emotion Co-Storying Within Religious and Spiritual Practices The Music Therapist’s Story Horizons Micro-Stories Story Arcs References 19 Responding by Affirming and Changing Emotion Stories Forms of Relational Flow Music Therapy as Relational Recovery Relational Responses to Burnout References 20 Conclusion How Might We Use These Four Pathways? Hope in Action References Appendix: Empathy Pathways 1. Insightful Empathy 2. Translational Empathy 3. An Empathising Assemblage 4. Relational Empathy References Index