Synchronization of forms of vitality dynamics in the music therapy

This paper presents the results of the case study of the Functional music therapy sessions with the autistic children. It investigates how and to which extent an interpersonal interaction and understanding can emerge and be created between a music therapist and an autistic child. One interpretation of the empirical results is that a development of this kind of social interaction is enabled by the coupling of dynamic forms of vitality between a therapist and a patient. Vitality has a basis in physical action and in mental operations. The experience of vitality in human interactions arises through linking five events - movement, time, force, space and intention/directionality (Stern, 2010). Theoretical explanation is furthermore based on G.H. Mead’s concept of gestures and a socio-psychological concept of spontaneous social responsibility. According to Mead (1934/1967), the objects are created within the social process of experience, through communication and mutual adjustment in behavior among the individual organisms. The interpretation of gestures is not a mental process; it is an external, open, and physical process which goes on in the sphere of social experience. ‘Social responsibility’ and engagement in the spontaneous play are fundamental prerequisites for our human subjectivity and wellbeing (Asplund, 1987/2004; Berg, 1992/2004). Music can be viewed as communication that engages emotions and thoughts and bodies. Even if it often does not have referential meaning, it still can mediate a dialogical process of mutual engagement.