What I'm Reading: Finally Doing Some More Reading

(I have NO idea why this font changes when it does...frustrating.)

I FINALLY finished chapter three of my current music therapy enrichment book - Emotional Processes in Music Therapy by John Pellitteri. This has not been a difficult read, but it has been difficult to get back into the routine of reading again. I shall strive to do more, but I am making absolutely zero promises these days.

I finished reading the last part of the third chapter last night before bed, and it was an interesting view on emotion and how emotion is linked inexorably with culture. This was a concept that I have never considered before - that culture shapes how we feel about things.

As I look over emotional times in my own life, I can see some of this cultural influence coming into play. As an introvert, I have had times when my behaviors were considered "less than desirable" and "weird." I didn't want to go to church youth group if all we were going to do was talk about going skiing. I wanted to engage in bible study. My mother had to come to church for a meeting with the youth group leader and the pastor about how concerned they were about me and the fact that I had "no friends." The same leader put me in a cabin with all of the little kids rather than with the campers my own age because she thought I would "get along better with the little kids." The fact of the matter was that I did not behave in a way that she thought was appropriate so I was the target of her confusion. The fact of the matter was that I was a bit more serious and goal-oriented than her own daughters. I was also quiet, serious, and more suited to reading and seeking understanding than being a flirtatious nitwit who only went to church to get enough points to go on the next ski trip. As compared to the expectations of the 1980s (when I was a teen), I was not "normal." My interests were not typical based on the cultural expectations of the time. What does this have to do with emotion?

We all interpret the emotional responses of others and ourselves through our cultural understanding. This is something that is part of our expectation set and is difficult to view in isolation. My emotional responses were judged based on the expectations of that youth group leader and were found wanting and abnormal (did I mention that she told my mother that?). Right or wrong, her viewpoint was very much shaped by her expectations of what a teen in the 1980s "should" be like. I wonder if her expectations of teenagers have changed at all all these decades later.

This situation and event in my life kept coming back into my head when I was reading this chapter. The idea that culture and emotional interpretation are linked is very interesting to me.

I am now looking at my own cultures - the culture of our country, my state, my town, my facility's town, my facility, each classroom, and my music therapy clinic. I am also considering the influence of my personal culture - my family, the moves we made when I was little, the fact that we were a nuclear family, and where we lived - on how i act and how I interpret things. The influence of both macro and micro cultures is fascinating, and permeates more than just how we interpret and experience emotion. 

If nothing else, this book is making me take a deeper look at why I do what I do when it comes to emotion.

I am looking forward to the next part of the book - Foundations - where we will start to think about the "psychophysiological" aspects of emotion and how it links up with music therapy. There are lots of things to consider. I am very glad that this book was a) on sale; b) intriguing; and c) something that I picked up when it was time to find a new book from the stack. I am finding this book to be getting a little bit more complex as we move along - I find myself re-reading sentences to define each word a bit more than I did in the beginning but I still have hopes that it will return to the level of approachability that it had at the beginning. Just one of my things about reading music therapy texts - they are not always easy to understand. All the big words used when a smaller word would do...just staggers the brain. Do textbook authors get paid by the letter? If so, I am missing out since I write and get no payment for any of my words!

Is this response one that is defined by my many cultural identities and expectations? You can be I will be thinking about this for the next week or so...