Discourse analysis reframes oncologic music therapy research findings

Constructivism informed an investigation into music therapy's relevance in a cancer hospital, that is, what did the music therapy do and did it help? Thematic findings, emergent from separate group data analyses (representing patients, visitors, staff, and a researcher's reflections), were contrasted and compared. While some perceptions about music therapy's relevance were shared, discrepancies were also evident. A discourse analysis provides a framework for examining how social reality is produced, acknowledging how multiple meanings can emerge through disparate dialogues informing individual life histories. A discourse analysis on this music therapy research extended the researchers’ reflexivity, provided a rationale for discrepant interpretations about music therapy's efficacy, and enabled alternate interpretations of some of the data and findings. Consequences of endeavouring to “hear” the multiplicity of meanings on discourses that serve to maintain music therapy professionalism, inevitable when examining subjective human experiences, are considered.