Narrative Accounts of Language Recovery through Music Therapy
Narrative Accounts of Language Recovery through Music Therapy

Summary/Abstract: The language of healing involves the use of medical terminologyrelated to critically ill patients and their recovery. The present research focuseson the role of music therapy as a nonverbal form of healing. A vast array ofneurological disorders affect nowadays both young and elderly patients.Among the most devastating illnesses, the stroke or cerebrovascular accident(CVA), in medical terms, disables many patients who lose the power ofcommunication. A stroke, among other terrible paralyzing effects, may cause acondition named aphasia, which is the loss of the ability to communicatenormally due to the damage produced to the left side of the brain which is thecentre of communication. The power of language in healing such patients isoften beyond our grasp as the linguistic means used for this purpose mayinclude confessions, incantations, and lyrics.The present study will focus on the mechanisms of speech recoverythrough music therapy and its benefits on the life of patients with aphasia. Inaddition to listing different types of aphasia, with particular focus on Broca’saphasia, we bring to attention two medical cases of aphasic patients, of whichone involves music therapy as a nonverbal recovery tool. The detailed narrativeaccount of this successful case history provided by neurologist Oliver Sacks(2011) represents valuable evidence that supports the idea of the beneficialeffects of enduring music therapy.

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