“It is more Important than food sometimes”; Meanings and Functions of Music in the Lives of Autistic Adults Through a hermeneutic-phenomenological Lense (original) (raw)

2022, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

Meanings, uses, and Functions of Music People use music to satisfy a great breadth of needs and socio-cultural functions. They span from entertainment and aesthetic enjoyment to enforcing conformity to social norms, (DeNora, 2016; Hallam et al., 2016; Macdonald et al., 2012). In this article, we will focus on its meanings and functions from the individual's perspective. Schäfer and colleagues (2013) set out to create a comprehensive list of the psychological functions of music listening. Through reviewing existing literature, they found 129 distinct functions, which they distilled into three main categories: Arousal and mood regulation, Self-awareness and Social relatedness. There are several other such categorisations (e.g. Greb et al., 2018; Groarke & Hogan, 2016; Maloney, 2017), but most of them agree that people listen to music to support their well-being and tackle different daily demands, to feel aesthetic enjoyment and connectedness, and to have a space for reflection and self-development. In a recent meta-ethnographic study, Perkins and colleagues (2020) looked into how participatory music engagement (e.g. playing in a band, singing in a choir) supports mental well-being. They found that making music helps manage and express emotions, facilitates self-development, "It is interesting; there is not that much research which would turn directly to people with autism, but it feels like there is so much written about the people, not in any sort of collaboration with them! When can I read the results?" exclaims Mira after our last interview. She is right. Even though the special place music can hold in a life of an autistic person was mentioned in the very first article about autism (Kanner, 1943), it was not until dozens of observational studies and half a century later that researchers turned to autistic people and asked how they perceive music and what it means to them (Allen et al., 2009; Bakan, 2018).