The Pianist, directed by Roman Polanski, tells the story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Jewish pianist, who miraculously survived the Holocaust. Throughout the film, Szpilman's musicality plays a key role in his survival: not only as a means to gain the sympathy of others, but also to enable him to cope with the traumatic experiences he encounters. However, music has not always worked successfully for Szpilman as a coping mechanism. In The Pianist, music's emotional healing powers do not lie in music's ability to escape into alternative, more desirable realities as a means of coping with a stressful situation. Rather, it is music's ability to express emotions and reflect on complex experiences to begin processing them, which successfully functions as a coping mechanism for Szpilman, allowing him to clear his mind of burdensome emotions to continue with his life. expression is an effective means of coping because it actively addresses the stressor rather than avoiding it. Claire Ghetti's book Active Music Engagement with Emotional-Approach Coping to Improve Well-being in Liver and Kidney Transplant Recipients discusses effective approach-oriented coping mechanisms, which attempt to understand the situation and reevaluate the circumstances, and coping mechanisms. ineffective avoidance coping, i.e. denial and suppression of emotions. Ghetti then goes on to discuss that an example of an approach coping mechanism is emotional approach coping: Emotional expression and processing can function as an approach-oriented coping strategy… The path through which the EAC [coping with emotional approach] works not good. understood, but it could relate to the theory of self-regulation as the EAC promotes clarification and refra...... middle of paper ......c experience, its survival does not depend only on their physical luck and people who wanted to help him, but it also depended on their ability to express and understand their own experiences in order to move forward. Works Cited Ghetti, Claire M. “Active Music Engagement with Emotional-Approach Coping to Improve Well-being in Liver and Kidney Transplant Recipients.” Journal of Music Therapy 48.4 (2011): 463-85. ProQuest. Web.Packalén, Elina. "Music, emotions and truth". Review of philosophy of music education. Np: Indiana University Press, 2008. 41-59. JSTOR. Web.The pianist. Director Romano Polanski. Perf. Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finley. Universal Studios, 2002. Young, David E. “Aesthetic Response as Coping Behavior: An Anthropological Perspective.” Studies in art education. Np: National Association for Art Education, n.d. 5-15. JSTOR. Net.