Music education in socieppreventoria for children, adolescents and adults; and to describe an
experiment carried out in a medico-pedagogical institute.WHY WAS THE SANATORIA MUSIC SERVICE FORMED?It was formed for the purpose of making conditions for patients under-
going prolonged periods of treatment more normal, and filling the
gaps in their social, intellectual and emotional life. Daily observation
of patients shows that good morale plays an important part in sana-
torium treatment. One way of achieving it is to bring about under-
standing between patient and doctor. Experience proves that full
co-operation between these two parties is essential to recovery; and
such co-operation is possible only if a constant check is kept on the
patient’s psychological condition. Prolonged treatment and the rate of
development of the disease have psychological repercussions which
are well known to sanatorium doctors.
Tubercular patients are affected in a number of ways. Not only must
they abandon everything-their studies, their jobs or their families-
but they must submit to the discipline of communal life, usually in an
establishment reserved for one or the other sex alone. Experts agree
that the patient’s reaction to this situation depends on three factors:
the personality of the doctor, the development and pathological cha-
racter of the disease, and the patient’s psychosomatic condition.
Most of the psychological symptoms recorded are due to the fact
that tuberculosis is a chronic, contagious disease, which has to be
treated in special institutions. Initial depression and anxiety are fairly
soon followed by exuberance, then apathy and even resentment. People
whose job it is to combat this disease are familiar with all these psycho-
logical reactions.
Patients are left to themselves for very long periods of time, and it
would be tragic if they could not use it in some intellectually and
morally profitable way. To deal with this difficult problem, doctors
should call on the arts, especially upon music.
MEASURES TAKEN IN BELGIUMThe musical education movement was begun in 1938 in a sanatorium
for boys. During the war it was, by makeshift means, expanded, thanks
to the unselfish devotion of large numbers of musicians. It consisted,