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Music, Illness Narratives, and Autobiographies

19 hours ago6 min read

If we maintain that music therapy is rooted in the humanities, we can find a strong alliance with medical professionals who expand their perspectives in this direction. There is a medical journal—Journal of Medical Humanities—that integrates research from literature, film, music, and art into medical thought. A few years ago, I attended a conference on Medical Humanities at Montclair University in New Jersey, USA, along with a group from CREMAH at NMH. The music therapy professor Brian Adams organized this exciting program, which included an opening lecture by Kate Pierson from the renowned party band The B-52s. What struck me at the time was her account of all the letters she had received from fans—not just expressing their appreciation for the band but also stating that the music had saved their lives.


Illness Narratives

Now, as I browse through several years’ worth of issues of this journal, I find a lot of interesting content, but very little about music. I stop at two articles that seem relevant. One article highlights the value of listening to popular music that tells stories about illness, while another provides an in-depth discussion of the health benefits of writing one's autobiography.


The first article, about popular music and illness narratives (Childress & Lou, 2023), is initially intended to show that medical students should listen to such stories to gain new perspectives on illness and enhance their empathy. To me, this is a strange premise, as I assume that medical students, like everyone else, listen to music and gain insight into other people’s situations through it. Thus, the article can also be read with a different focus—how literary theory and popular music research can help us understand what kinds of narratives are being told.


First and foremost, we can establish that popular music is full of stories about illness, disabilities, death, and health-related religious beliefs, according to the authors. Listening to this music provides an opportunity to engage with its moral universe and empathize with the artist’s pain, grief, and even joy. These songs also contain narrative elements familiar from other literary genres, including plot, characters, and perspectives.

The storyline of these songs includes the same elements found in written illness narratives, according to medical sociologist Arthur Frank, author of the influential book The Wounded Healer. One of these narratives is called a restitution narrative, expressing a desire for health to be restored. So-called chaos narratives are dominated by overwhelming loss and pain; they are often fragmented and lack a typical narrative structure but bear witness to suffering in all its forms. In a quest narrative, the illness is depicted as a series of struggles leading to some kind of meaningful realization.


Music Reinforces the Message

Music’s role in conveying these stories is to create narrative tension through musical devices, harmonies, and dissonances, potentially moving toward a harmonious resolution. The performance itself—the way the song is sung—naturally plays a crucial role here. It is this combination of literary and musical elements that gives these narratives their aesthetic power and impact.


Autobiographical, Biographical, and Metaphorical Narratives

The authors identify at least three types of illness narratives in popular music: autobiographical, biographical, and metaphorical. Some songwriters share their personal experiences with illness. Other narratives relate to family members and the role of caregivers. Still, others allude to bodily experiences familiar to healthcare workers or other patients.


An example of an autobiographical illness narrative, often characterized as a true and genuine story, is found in Like Clockwork by Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, where he recounts a near-death experience during surgery. Another example is Kanye West’s Through the Wire from the album The College Dropout (2004), which tells of his car accident—a life-changing event that gave him new strength.


There are also biographical narratives about witnessing illness in loved ones or experiencing the loss of someone dear. Regarding metaphorical presentations, the song My Body Is a Cage from Arcade Fire's album Neon Bible is cited as an example. When metaphors are used, multiple interpretations become possible—not all necessarily related to illness. However, when the body is described as a cage, it can symbolize a loss of bodily control, restrictions imposed by illness, or other limitations.


Such increased awareness of literary qualities and structures can provide tools for music therapists when using songs to spark discussions in group therapy. This is not primarily about enhancing empathy but rather demonstrating, through song examples, that artists and idols also struggle with human problems, that one is not alone in carrying the burden of illness, and that there is hope and a way out of suffering.


Writing Your Autobiography

The second article discusses the value of writing one’s autobiography (Valtonen, 2021). In music therapy, this could involve writing a musical autobiography or identity narrative. As we will see, this does not necessarily have to focus on illness or life struggles, as much research has suggested. There is a substantial body of research related to the paradigm of expressive writing.


Many artists recognize that writing about their lives has a therapeutic effect. Rock musician Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers, who describes himself as completely uneducated as a writer, has stated that he turns to writing when he feels utterly miserable—implying that it helps him cope.


An Interdisciplinary Approach

Expressive writing is a significant topic in experimental psychology and biomedical research. In these experiments, participants are asked to write briefly about their life experiences over several days, and such exercises have been shown to have health benefits. The author of the article argues that while research has demonstrated objective, quantifiable effects, the theoretical perspectives used to explain these results are limited.


One common explanation is the emotional disclosure account—the idea that opening up and sharing one’s experiences leads to these positive effects. However, the author suggests that a broader and more nuanced interdisciplinary perspective is needed, incorporating insights from neuropsychology and philosophy. He also highlights that not all attempts at autobiographical writing have beneficial health effects—particularly when dealing with traumatic experiences, where excessive rumination can lead to depression and physical ailments.


Thinking vs. Writing?

Research suggests that people who write regularly about their life experiences find this valuable, even when writing about painful events. In contrast, those who are asked to merely think about their negative experiences report lower life satisfaction. The difference between thinking and writing about difficult life experiences is striking. Participants in expressive writing groups report greater life satisfaction, better mental health, improved social functioning, and fewer physical symptoms compared to those in the thinking group.

We know that something happens—writing has an effect—but we do not fully understand why. Hypotheses range from psychoanalytic theories to cognitive learning theory, self-regulation theories, and theories of social attachment. One common hypothesis is that suppressing negative life experiences has harmful consequences, while structuring a narrative and confronting difficult experiences has positive outcomes. Biomedical explanations also exist, such as neural pathways that mitigate stress or specialized neural networks that process these effects.


Narrative Meaning-Making

Literary critics and philosophers have long argued that narratives are psychologically essential for making sense of our experiences. This aligns with neuropsychological findings showing that the brain has cognitive subsystems specialized in making sense of unexpected events through narratives.


The neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga suggests that the left hemisphere supports cognitive processes that generate hypothetical narratives to explain experiences. He calls this function the interpreter, stating:

“The interpreter is the glue that keeps our story unified and creates our sense of being a coherent, rational agent.”

This understanding aligns with philosopher Paul Ricoeur’s concept of narrative identity—the idea that writing about one’s life goals is just as beneficial as writing about life’s traumas.


Distance and Reflection

Why is there a difference between thinking about life experiences and writing about life events and life goals? Valtonen suggests that constructing a narrative—whether written down or told to others—creates a distance from the experiences in question in a way that a mere mental representation does not. This temporal distance allows us to adopt a reflective and observational position, providing a perspective that was not possible while the event was occurring.


Closeness or intimacy in autobiographical storytelling arises because the storyteller themselves appears in the narrative as responsible for the events being revealed, and thus has a personal interest in how others will react to the story. This idea, that writing creates distance, is also considered in Gestalt psychology. For example, the German music therapist Isabelle Frohne has used such writing techniques in combination with music in therapy, something I have personally experienced in a workshop she led.


One key point highlighted is that writing autobiographical narratives is not just a documentation of who we are but also a way of shaping our self-understanding, as we know from identity theories. The story we tell about ourselves helps us develop what Aristotle called phronesis—a kind of life wisdom that can only be cultivated through a combination of experience and reflection.


Valtonen also advocates for more research on the role of metaphor use in the writing process. Considering how music generates images, bodily states, thoughts, and associations—as seen in Guided Imagery and Music (GIM)—and how we often use metaphors to describe such experiences, there are many opportunities to deepen our understanding of the role of storytelling.


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