Open AccessBio-political Perspectives on the Expression of People with Disabilities in Music Therapy: Case Examples
Author(s) -
Hiroko Miyake
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
voices
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1504-1611
DOI - 10.15845/voices.v14i3.800
Subject(s) - music therapy , disability studies , politics , ethnic group , field (mathematics) , inclusion (mineral) , identity (music) , power (physics) , sociology , perspective (graphical) , gender studies , race (biology) , expression (computer science) , cultural studies , psychology , aesthetics , social science , criminology , political science , psychotherapist , law , anthropology , art , physics , mathematics , quantum mechanics , computer science , pure mathematics , visual arts , programming language
The burgeoning interdisciplinary field of disability studies has understood disability not as medical pathology, but rather as a social and cultural construction. It involves political attempts to move the dividing line between dis/ability, ab/normal, as well as gender, race, or ethnicity, from the perspective of “claiming disability” (Linton, 1998) as a positive political and cultural identity. However, in the music therapy field, disability studies has been generally ignored because music therapy has traditionally been ensconced in a medical model rather than a socio-cultural or political model. In this article, I will discuss the issue of power relationships inherent in music therapy by referring to recent literature in disability studies.