A must-read for anyone who questions the health benefits of music.
A collection of essays about the health benefits of music and the arts.
Editor Fleming, an acclaimed soprano and arts/health advocate, introduces readers to current research and practices related to the healing power of the arts. Among the contributors are scientists from leading research facilities, practitioners, educators, and musicians and writers, including Richard Powers, Ann Patchett, Rosanne Cash, Zakir Hussain, and Yo-Yo Ma, who share their personal experiences. Many readers are aware of the power of music to reduce stress. However, there is an interesting misconception that classical music is superior to other genres when it comes to relaxation. While calm music is “often associated with relaxation, a wide variety of music styles and ways of engaging with music can promote stress relief,” writes Joke Bradt, a board-certified music therapist. While studies show that introducing music to children at an early age improves cognitive and brain development, as well as language skills, some school districts are still apprehensive about implementing music programs. Indre Viskontas, director of the Creative Brain Lab at the University of San Francisco, clearly demonstrates why they shouldn’t be hesitant: “Instead of taking time and resources away from the core curriculum, music programs in schools motivate kids to attend, and drive up graduation rates, GPAs, and good behavior.” The contributors also provide concrete evidence to support the ways music therapy and art-based interventions can assist patients with dementia and other debilitating conditions, including Alzheimer’s, PTSD, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis, as well as depression and loneliness. While some of the topics repeat across the essays, they are no less compelling, and most of the pieces complement each other. Francis S. Collins, the former head of the Human Genome Project, provides the foreword.
A must-read for anyone who questions the health benefits of music.Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9780593653197
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
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