[Depression in the elderly. Contribution of music therapy to grief work]

If one understands the physical manifestation of minor depressions or multiple functional disorders in the elderly as being indirectly expressed dissatisfaction because of unfulfilled aims in life, a practical recovery process is necessary in order to confront the underlying psychic process. The aging person has to come to terms with his eventual demise. If he faces this, he will have a chance at renewed energy to accomplish incomplete aims. Many people need help in order to continue the recovery process. Even if speech or reflexive possibilities are inhibited, it is possible accomplish therapy by the medium of sound, which is a preverbal language. Music therapy is able to work at a psychotherapeutic level in persons seemingly unable to be influenced by conventional psychotherapeutic-methods. Two case studies with different techniques (singing of well known songs and free improvisation) illustrate this theses.