Open AccessEthnomusicological Perspectives on Autism, Neurodiversity, and Music Therapy
Author(s) -
Michael B. Bakan
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
voices
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1504-1611
DOI - 10.15845/voices.v14i3.799
Subject(s) - ethnomusicology , autism , music therapy , psychology , complement (music) , sociology , psychotherapist , musical , developmental psychology , art , literature , biochemistry , chemistry , complementation , gene , phenotype
In this article, I suggest that a provisional paradigm shift from disability as pathology to disability as neurodiversity has the potential to productively resituate the epistemological orientations of music therapy, both as a field of inquiry and a domain of practice. I draw from my own work on the ethnomusicology of autism, as well as from research and writings in disability studies and autistic self-advocacy, in proposing that the relativistic foundations of ethnomusicology offer a potentially useful alternative and complement to the principally treatment-directed foundations of music therapy.