World Famous Comics: Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
By: Oliver Sacks Publisher: Picador Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Format: Import Label: Picador Number of Pages: 400 Publication Date: November 02, 2007
Musicophilia: Reviewed This book further detailed the fascination with music's neurological connection. Why do some people have a natural talent and others don't? Absolute pitch, musical savants, 'seeing' music, memory training, and gained/lost musical abilities from accidents/health issues/etc are a few of the many topics Sacks addresses. The majority of the book are case reviews from the author's various patients & studies. There are definitely some cases that feel repetitive (Okay great...another story about another guy struck by lighting with the same reaction as the previous 2 described). For someone who is interested in music's effect on the mind (and someone who is a bit nerdy), this book is perfect for casually picking up in the evenings and reading at leisure.
Man, the musical animal Sacks does it again, merging clinical precision with insight and real affection for his patients. This time, he explores the biological foundations of music as a human experience. It turns out that music runs deep in the human brain and mind, as it does in possibly no other species. In his medical practice, Sacks has seen how music can heal, as in some Parkison's and psychiatric patients, or even harm, in rare cases where its rhythms can trigger seizures. It can reach in to patients blocked from normal communication, and it can help people reach out through stuttering or stroke-damaged failures of language. In some Tourette's patients, it can both drive creativity, and be used to channel the illness's effects away from harmful kinds of expression. It casts new light on Plato's draconian control over music in his idealized Republic - it really does have deep effect on the citizens' minds.
Since musical expression seems so deeply ingrained in the human nervous system, it seems surprising that people differ so much in how the experience it. Oddly, enjoyment and basic neurological faculties for music don't always go together. I'm one who "lack[s] some of the perceptual or cognitive abilities to appreciate music but nonetheless enjoy it hugely." I'm about as unmusical as anyone around, but usually have something playing - at least in my imagination. Others, even with fine senses of pitch or the formal nuances of music, might be quite indifferent. I found it helpful to see all the different parts of the musical sense, and to see how they fit together.
This book gives real insight into one of the most basic of human faculties. It's a study that has only recently claimed a place of its own in the scientific literature, possibly because it is so abstract and subjective. As a result, nearly everything that Sacks presents comes across as fresh knowledge. And, since it discusses parts of human nature that have rarely been discussed, it helped me to see my place in the range of human experience. My lack of musical ability has been an embarrassment, sometimes a painful one. I can, and do, enjoy it anyway, and my enjoyment is as real as anyone's.
-- wiredweird
Musicophillia Arrived quickly and in perfect condition. Great read for anyone interested in the psychology of music, specifically music therapists.
If you've read Sacks and loved it, you'll be disappointed... Perhaps the "revised and Expanded Edition" has overcome the original failings of repetition and failure to hold together. This book felt link a compendium of short articles.
Needs editing My wife thoughtfully purchased this book for me. I had read about it and was very excited to dive right in. Unfortunately I ended up really having to convince myself to finish it, as it became redundant fairly quickly. Sacks presents (too) many case studies regarding music and the brain, but the presentation feels random and somewhat unfocused. Had his editor suggested grouping the studies by themes or urged Sacks to provide more neurological background information it perhaps would have better kept my attention. It felt as if the reader had to do a lot of work to pull together some of the concepts.
As for the perceived redundancy, I kept waiting for the conclusion or wrap-up that would provide the overarching theme to all the seemingly disconnected patient stories, but to no avail. It almost felt as if the stories were starting to repeat themselves but with different patient names. The length too felt far too long, almost as if everything presented in the first half were just recycled for the second. Additionally, the writing style is very informal and easy to digest, which is not necessarily a positive. The book begins to feel as if the author were afraid to intelligently, academically, and thoroughly dissect the subject matter for fear of alienating too many readers. The result is a glossy feeling, like you're reading the U.S.A. Today version of something that could have really offered some insightful perspectives.
Promising topic, but presented without much organization, background information, or conclusion. I'm surprised that an editor would allow such breadth to be published without any true depth.
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