Jungian Approaches to Sound and Music: A Critical Review of Margaret Tilly’s Music Therapy Practice

Abstract This paper is grounded in the 1956 meeting between Carl Gustav Jung and the music therapist Margaret Tilly, as documented in William McGuire’s C. G. Jung Speaking: Interviews and Encounters (1977). It draws on both published and archival primary sources related to Tilly, examining them with particular attention to treatment style, methodological approaches, and historical case material, as well as their correspondence with Jung’s psychological framework. Through a systematic analysis of Tilly’s therapeutic principles and her musical applications in clinical settings, this paper aims to identify early Jungian approaches in music therapy to contribute to the theoretical foundation for the subsequent development of protocols in Jungian music psychotherapy. The findings illuminate important aspects of personality types, transformative symbols, and psychological transformation processes as manifested in Tilly’s music therapy practices.