Music

ABSTRACT

From the very beginning there was sound, be it bang, Om, or Logos. Research reveals that plants as well as animals use sound to communicate. We live in a world of sound, be it from earth or sky, tides or storms, katydids or chickens. It informs us that a car or train is near or that a gardener or carpenter is at work. It lets us know if we are in danger, gives us means to express our emotions and values, and expresses our fantasies, visions, and images. Sound is the stuff of attachment and we learn to listen even before we are born. It touches us in our core, links us to one another in heart and body, and can help us heal. Sound and music are intimate conduits to the collective unconscious and carriers of archetypal motifs. For patients, music can birth new, previously unimaginable beginnings. Listening or playing an instrument can be healing and transformative. In an instant music can awaken our spirits, get us moving, bring on tears, take us to a holy place, or lull us to sleep. From the first cry of the newborn to the last breath and beat of a heart, we are enveloped in the rich gift of sound.

KEY WORDS:

• animals
• archetypes
• auditory processing
• autism
• ears
• fetus
• healing
• health
• hearing
• listening
• music
• neuroscience
• oxytocin
• plants
• prosody
• rhythm
• social engagement
• sound
• sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems
• threat systems
• vagus nerve
• vibration
• voice
• womb

NOTE

References to The Collected Works of C. G. Jung are cited in the text as CW, volume number, and paragraph number. The Collected Works are published in English by Routledge (UK) and Princeton University Press (USA).

Notes

1. uDiscover Team, “Louis Armstrong,” uDiscover Music, December 17, https://www.udiscovermusic.com/artist/louis-armstrong/.

2. MyUnyte, The Safe and Sound Protocol, https://integratedlistening.com.au/ssp-safe-sound-protocol/.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nickie Amerius-Sargeant

NICKIE AMERIUS-SARGEANT, LMFT, is a Jungian analyst and teaching member of the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco as well as an associate editor for Jung Journal: Culture & Psyche. She has taught seminars and led workshops on authentic movement; embodied memory; active imagination from narrative, neurocognitive and analytic perspectives; a history of Jung’s life; the transcendent function; and a brief review of depth psychology for graduate students. In addition to presenting at the North/South Conference in California, at a Latin America analytical psychology conference, and at the International Conference for Analytical Psychology, she has published an interview with an equine therapist and another on the clinical value and complexities of publishing case material, both in Jung Journal. She has an online analytic practice in California. Correspondence: [email protected].