Degree

BS (Social Sciences & Liberal Arts)

Faculty / School

School of Economics and Social Sciences (SESS)

Department

Department of Social Sciences & Liberal Arts

Date of Award

Spring 2025

Date of Submission

2025-07-15

Advisor

Dr. Shameel Khan

Committee

Ms. Hajrah Rehman

Project Type

SSLA Culminating Experience

Access Type

Restricted Access

Keywords

Narrative Music, Loss, Grief, Bereavement, Freud

Abstract

The influence of music has been dominant throughout civilizations; from being prescribed to alleviate illness by ancient Egyptians and Greeks to its contemporary use as a transitional funeral and mourning rite in traditional communities (O’Callaghan et al., 2012b), music has begun to penetrate the institutional psychiatric spheres as a form of therapeutic intervention, commonly referred to as ‘music therapy’. A study published in Death Studies found that bereaved adults who participated in a 10-week music therapy program reported a 25% reduction in grief intensity and improved emotional well-being compared to a control group (Hilliard, 2001). This demonstrates the potential of music therapy to help individuals process and cope with loss. Although the communal use of music in grief choirs has been thoroughly researched upon, an individual’s natural inclination towards music as means to cope with loss remains unexamined. Most research concerning music therapy and the bereaved has focused on the effectiveness of interventions; while this research is valuable, it does not reflect bereaved people’s natural use of music to cope with loss (O’Callaghan et al., 2012b). Therefore, the aim of this research is to explore the role of narrative-music as means to cope with loss by catering to the following research questions: (1) Is narrative music effective for coping with loss? (2) What is the comparative effectiveness of narrative and non-narrative music in coping with loss. A semi-structured interview will take place, catering to the following conceptual frameworks identified: (1) Dual-Process Theory, (2) Continuing Bonds in Grief and Bereavement Theory, (3) Meaning Reconstruction Model.

Pages

v,66

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