The investigation of the psychological functions of musical activity requires a broad approach; it is undertaken in this essay with the aid of two sets of psychoanalytic concepts.

1. The meaning of music for the developed, structuralized psyche can be derived by focusing successively on the three parts of the structure: id, ego, and superego. We are thus enabled to isolate three functions of music: emotional catharsis for repressed wishes, playful mastery of the threats of trauma, and enjoyable submission to rules. Catharsis, mastery, and submission are experienced in a nonverbal medium, i.e., outside the sphere of most structural conflicts.