Jungian Music Psychotherapy: When Psyche Sings

209 Pages·2019·0.992 MB·English

by  Joel Kroeker

As a musician and student of Jung, I have been waiting for this book all
my life. Intelligently and comprehensively Kroeker explores the musical
in every aspect of psychotherapy. I know that it isn’t easy to write words
about music, but this book handles that problem deftly. If you have any
musical sense at all, you will enjoy this sophisticated way of seeing how
music makes art out of life.
– Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul
J oel Kroeker’s Jungian Music Psychotherapy significantly helps round out
the rich array of tools Jung left therapists everywhere. By reminding us
that all “ideas” we have of the psyche are metaphors for energy systems,
he brings us back to the elemental rhythms, harmonies, and discordances
which hum beneath the surface of things. Just as Pater asserted that “all
art aspires to the [wordless] condition of music,” so Kroeker recalls us to
resonate with the energies which drive our lives, and furthers the assignment
of therapy to recover a relationship to those elemental soundings which
resonate in our blood, our souls, and our imaginations.
– James Hollis, PhD, Jungian analyst and
author, Washington, D.C.
Joel Kroeker’s book is a valuable contribution to both music psychotherapy
and Jungian psychology. It is the first book to unite the two fields and
bring a depth psychology approach to the growing field of music and vocal
psychotherapy. Singing can give us access to the invisible world: the world
of imagery, memory and association by giving a voice to aspects of the
self normally not heard from. In Jung’s words: “Music reaches the deep
archetypal material that we can only sometimes reach in our analytic work
with patients.” Music allows the image and the feelings associated with the
complex to be channeled into a concrete form so that the ego can then relate
to a previously unknown aspect of the unconscious and begin to integrate it
into one’s self-image thus assisting in the individuation process.
– Dr. Diane Austin, Professor of Music Therapy NYU, Director
of the Music Psychotherapy Center, music and vocal
psychotherapist and author, New York City, USA
J oel Kroeker writes passionately of the centrality of music in the life of the
soul – and brilliantly! all in the key of Jung. To stir and to cure and to help
the soul endure, there is nothing like music. This book is a most welcome
addition to the library on the theory and practice of contemporary Jungian
psychoanalysis.
– Murray Stein, PhD, author of Soul: Treatment and Recovery
Joel Kroeker’s book is an incisive roadmap to Jungian archetypal music
psychotherapy. An inspiring book that beautifully takes you to the journey
of symbolic listening, intrapsychic soundscape, and the endless stream
of sound-based metaphors – another avenue to understand music therapy
processes. An indispensable and lucid guide to Jungian theory, providing
coverage of an approach and number of techniques not commonly taught
in most music therapy trainings or textbooks. I recommend this book as a
core text to every music psychotherapist. If there is only one book you buy
on Jungian music therapy, this is the one.
– Dr. Heidi Ahonen, Professor of Music Therapy.
Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada
L ike psyche, this book sings; as such it is an instantiation of creativity.
There are echoes of the Spirit that groans for redemption without words.
As I read the book, a flood of memories were evoked where the word-less
Spirit was transformative and creative: a woman nurtured to health by
listening to Dvorak’s Stabat Mater and a therapist who began the day of
writing and therapy by listening to Brahms. Kroeker’s book exemplifies
the wisdom of Chinese sage, Lao Tze, who believed that the true Tao (Way)
is unspoken. Thanks Joel for helping me hear the music of the spheres in
the stories of my clients.
– Al Dueck, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Cultural
Psychologies, Fuller Graduate School of Psychology,
Pasadena, CA, USA
We can be grateful for this book, which fills a chattering void in the Jungian
literature with authentic soundings of the depths of individuals’ musical
experiences. To the way he listens to his patients’ listening, the author
brings the same kind of surprising sensitivity that enabled Jung to convey
the importance of recalling what we actually see when we imagine. Taking
us through the changes and chords of moments that have managed to
score the reveries of people he has attended to, Joel Kroeker demonstrates
that what people spontaneously hear from the music in and around them
can amplify the successes and the pitfalls of their psychological growth
processes every bit as reliably as their autonomous visualizations.
– John Beebe, author of Energies and Patterns in Psychological
Type: The Reservoir of Consciousness
This outstanding book is an excellent addition to the discourse on music
and analytic psychology. As a Jungian psychotherapist Joel explores the
connections between music and its potential to act as a psychic space. By
intertwining clinical case vignettes within the book Joel invites the reader
into a fascinating narrative, elucidating the unique qualities of music and
its potential to act as a symbolic therapeutic force. This book is articulate,
well considered, and should be read by all psychotherapists and those who
wish to understand the connections between music and the psyche.
– Colin Andrew Lee, PhD, Professor of Music Therapy,
Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada
Kroeker has a deep grounding and understanding of Jung, psychoanalysis,
music theory and practice but he goes beyond all of these into our
relationship with sound itself. I listened to every piece he mentioned in the
book and how much that enriched the reading experience! Paradoxically
Jungian Music Psychotherapy opens up areas that words alone cannot
reach, pointing directly at the Nature of Mind where listening and
perception become creative acts in and of themselves. Enjoy!
– John Allan, PhD, Professor Emeritus, University of British
Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; Jungian analyst, author
of Inscapes of the Child’s World: Jungian Counselling
in Schools and Clinics
K roeker articulately levels his argument squarely at the primordial nature
of music itself, as a kind of first language. He illustrates the essential point
that this musical field as a location can take us beyond our current one-
sided logos orientation to a more balanced and relational symbiotic musical
ecosystem and even to the transpersonal level. Or as Kroeker puts it, the
right music at the right time within the appropriate relationship can put
us back in accord with nature. The implications of Kroeker’s main thesis
here could be substantial on the collective level since he seems to imply
that music is a liminal temenos for this necessary shift from the old order
of logos-oriented dominion into a more liberated eros-oriented attitude.
– Jerome S. Bernstein, Jungian analyst and author of Living
in the Borderland: The Evolution of Consciousness and the
Challenge of Healing Trauma

Jungian Music Psychotherapy
M usic is everywhere in our lives and all analysts are witness to musical
symbols arising from their patient’s psyche. However, there is a common
resistance to working directly with musical content. Combining a wide
range of clinical vignettes with analytic theory, Kroeker takes an in-depth
look at the psychoanalytic process through the lens of musical expression
and puts forward an approach to working with musical symbols within
analysis, which he calls Archetypal Music Psychotherapy (AMP).
K roeker argues that we have lost our connection to the simple, vital
immediacy that musical expression offers. By distilling music into its
basic archetypal elements, he illustrates how to rediscover our place
in this confrontation with deep psyche and highlights the role of the
enigmatic, musical psyche for guiding us through our life. Innovative and
interdisciplinary, Kroeker’s model for working analytically with musical
symbols enables readers to harness the impact of meaningful sound,
allowing them to view these experiences through the clarifying lens of
depth psychology and the wider work of contemporary psychoanalytic
theory.
Jungian Music Psychotherapy is a groundbreaking introduction to
the ideas of Archetypal Music Psychotherapy that interweaves theory
with clinical examples. It is essential reading for Jungian analysts,
psychotherapists, psychoanalysts, music therapists, academics and students
of Jungian and post-Jungian studies, music studies, consciousness studies
and those interested in the creative arts.
Joel Kroeker is a Swiss-trained Jungian psychoanalyst and a music-centred
psychotherapist based in Victoria, Canada. Kroeker is also an award-
winning international recording artist.

Jungian Music Psychotherapy
When Psyche Sings
Joel Kroeker
First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2019 Joel Kroeker
The right of Joel Kroeker to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kroeker, Joel, author.
Title: Jungian music psychotherapy : when Psyche sings / Joel
Kroeker.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, [2019] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019003883 (print) | LCCN 2019004622 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780429459740 (Master eBook) | ISBN 9780429861635
(Adobe Reader) | ISBN 9780429861611 (Mobipocket) |
ISBN 9780429861628 (ePub) | ISBN 9781138625648 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781138625662 (pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Music therapy. | Psychotherapy. | Psychotherapy
and music. | Jungian psychology.
Classification: LCC ML3920 (ebook) | LCC ML3920 .K86 2019
(print) | DDC 615.8/5154—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019003883
ISBN: 978-1-138-62564-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-62566-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-45974-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Dedicated to Oliver
who accompanied and encouraged the gestation of this
book from in utero