It cools the heart – An Investigation on the Psychotherapeutic Effects of Playing the Nkangala
The effect of playing is described by the two teachers as “cooling the heart’. They play in times when they are faced with problems or intense emotional distress, e.g. the loss of family members. Thus, from psychoanalytic perspective, playing the Nkangala could be understood to serve as a “transitional object” (Donald Winnicott).
Since playing the Nkangala is a physical experience and from the view point of libido economy, another attempt to investigate on the effects could be by means of describing it as an autoerotic gratification and a “regression in the service of the ego” (Ernst Kris). The therapeutic effect could be described as a cathartic way of balancing the libidinous flow. At the end of the presentation short video documents will be shown.
