Music performance anxiety: evolutionary, developmental, and psychodynamic perspectives

Music performance anxiety (MPA) occurs in very young children and is prevalent throughout the lifespan of musicians. Childhood presentations are phenotypically similar to adult musicians which raises the question as to whether MPA is innate or acquired and if identified in childhood, the most appropriate way to manage it to forestall MPA as a lifelong problem. An understanding of developmental and psychodynamic psychology and the multifactorial causation of MPA is necessary to develop effective interventions. In this paper, I propose a three-stage model comprising a developmental-relational substrate which, if faulty, results in the development of structural vulnerabilities such as low self-efficacy and maladaptive perfectionism, which in turn triggers performance-activated cognitive-affective processes that underpin behavioral and somatic manifestations of MPA. This model accounts for the appearance of the MPA complex in very young children and its persistence across the lifespan even in elite musicians in the absence of performance catastrophes.