Can Music Therapy Still Be Humanist?

Therapy is perhaps the exemplary child of humanism, a natural outcome of core humanist principles. The arts therapies have neatly amalgamated the humanist priorities of personal expression and psychological introspection with their particular achievement through aesthetic media. We might think of music therapy as a favored grandchild of humanism. So-called “humanistic music therapy” is often seen as the final statement in this development. But the era of humanism is now coming under challenge—first largely as an academic preoccupation of the last decades, but now one that is filtering down through more popular writing. It is hotly debated whether we are now entering a new “posthumanist” era. This article explores the implications of the challenge to traditional humanism for the principles, practices, and values of music therapy. Can music therapy still be humanist or does posthumanism imply the need for a substantial rethinking of its foundational assumptions?