PSYCHOLOGICAL RECOVERY BY MUSICAL MEANS IN WARTIME

Abstract

The article ‘Psychological recovery by means of music in conditions of war’ presents the results of a study conducted during 2022–2023 as part of the project ‘Psychological recovery of children, soldiers, residents of de-occupied territories by means of art therapy’. The purpose of the work was to investigate the possibilities of using musical means for the psychological recovery of the population of de-occupied communities and communities affected by the war. General scientific methods (observation, analysis and synthesis, generalization, statistical) and specialized methods (psychological screening, survey, detailed individual interview) were used in the course of the research. Methodology. The methodological basis of the study is the reintegration approach developed within the psychology of isolation (the direction of military psychology), which suggests using the capabilities of the human psyche, manifested in abnormal conditions for a person, for his/her recovery, as well as an integrative approach, which provides for the possibility and importance of application by psychological consultants and psychotherapists in working with the client using different methods, according to the client’s needs. The research was based on the assumption that classical music can be an effective tool for psychoemotional relief of people who were in the war zone or occupation and need psychological recovery. It should be noted that full-fledged psycho-emotional relief is a mandatory prerequisite for a person to process his own traumatic experience or to get out of the compression condition caused by being in an occupation or a war zone, and timely and regular psycho-emotional relief is an effective means of preventing mental disorders. Thus, the objective need to provide psycho-emotional relief for a large number of war-affected communities in communities stimulates specialists to look for new forms of relief measures, involving for this purpose high-quality and safe tools of psycho-emotional influence, which we consider to be musical works selected in a special program and performed on impeccable professional level. The professional assumption required an appropriate evidence base, so a survey was conducted among the event participants using a specially developed questionnaire that served as a screening tool. Participation in the screening survey was completely voluntary. 339 residents of Irpin, Bucha and Kyiv, including those who are currently defending Ukraine at the front, took part in the survey. Scientific innovation. In the course of the work, the effectiveness of musical means for psychoemotional relief of people who may be compressed as a result of being in isolation (occupation) was investigated for the first time, and the peculiarities of the use of musical art-therapeutic means as a tool of psycho-emotional influence in conditions of war were analyzed. Conclusions. Art therapy tools have proven to be very effective and multifunctional for the purposes of psychological recovery of the population of de-occupied communities. Art therapy tools can be used at different levels of providing MHPSS services, but the requirements for their use for the purposes of psychosocial support and for therapeutic purposes are significantly different. The physical impact of music on the body and psyche of a person has a compensatory effect for those people who were in the zone of active explosions (both as a result of shelling and as a result of air defense), as well as for combatants. At the same time, exposure to live classical music can be considered risk-free if no other technical means are used. The conducted research testifies to the effectiveness of musical means in the context of psycho-emotional relief of people who experienced stress in war conditions, while measures that were conducted exclusively as measures of psychological support gave a stronger effect than measures that were conducted as complex events (when, in addition to a mass musical session, which was conducted by a team of musicians and psychologists, there were other activities). In general, we consider the study of the use of musical means for the psychological and psychophysiological recovery of a person to be very promising, both in terms of researching the mechanisms of their influence on the human psyche and the processes of its recovery, and in terms of using the obtained results for the formation of psychological recovery programs for children and adults, as well as representatives of target groups that are in the zone of increased psychological stress.