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This study was one of the 8 case studies conducted on an acute unit of a psychiatric hospital as part of a research project focused on listening to participant-selected music with patients who were in the early stages of psychosis. The central research question was to explore whether listening to music with patients could help facilitate their emotional containment and expression. What the case study illustrated was that the participant case musical selections expressed her identity and aspirations and gave form to emotional expressions that she otherwise might have had trouble assigning directly through verbal expression. Music as a meta-communication tool helped this participant articulate and contain unbearable feelings. By listening to music with the participant, the researcher was allowed brief and meaningful access and attunement to the participant’s inner world. This case study provides background information about the participant, describes highlights from 10- to 30-minute listening sessions, and offers analysis of the participant’s musical choices and responses to music. It is hoped that the methodology and findings of this in-depth case report might provide a means for processing, analysing, and reporting for those who practice music psychotherapy and music medicine. This may serve as particularly useful with patients who have psychiatric diagnoses or psychotic episodes.

This article is an inquiry into the potential role of music in helping to address and to articulate complex emotional states such as the feelings patients might experience during the process of an illness or while undergoing bereavement. The article is centered on the role music played in structuring and articulating the cancer treatment experience of my infant nephew. What is woven around that central core is a synthesis and analysis of various philosophical perspectives, autobiographical vignettes, and empirical research. The writer postulates that music has an essential, inherent capacity to scaffold and contain emotions. Music is also considered a means to help facilitate the expression of difficult emotions such as lamentation, longing, and fear of the unknown that are often otherwise isolating, ineffable, or unbearable for patients. A major point of inquiry in this article is whether music can serve as a nurturing love object, or as a transitional object, for a patient during times of intense distress. What is also woven throughout this article is a subexploration of various philosophical perspectives on the cultural meanings and metaphors of illness.