Is Music an Archaic Form of Thinking?

Abstract

The central idea of this article is based on the assumption that there is a close parallel between the forms of music and ‘archaic’ forms of thinking. The article discusses the Piagetian developmental model of assimilation and accommodation processes and their resemblance to the increasing and decreasing inner tensions caused by music. At the most general, pervasive level, music can be viewed as being parallel to bodily experienced, non-verbal forms of meaning, and, as such, may be described as ‘archaic thinking’. This dimension of musical experience is common to all known cultures, and it is similar to the body schemas and ‘bodily forms of thinking’ of an infant.

Forms of ‘archaic thinking’ as a hierarchy are also discussed. Theories concerning the different developmental phases of thinking are considered. The cognitive and psychoanalytical theories of Eva Basch-Kahre shed new light on the phenomenon of music, as do the infant developmental research and writings of Daniel Stern. Basch-Kahre distinguishes different forms of thinking according to the different developmental stages of the individual, e.g. chaotic, emotional-sensomotoric and operational thinking processes. Stern considers developmental stages of the infant in an interpersonal dimension, the dynamic processes of which manifest ‘musically’, or in ‘musical’ forms. This author's thesis is that, by using music and musical symbols in the therapeutic situation, for example, it is possible to meet and address all these developmental stages within the individual.