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91 of 98 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
The musical references are a mess...., November 4, 2002
I enjoyed reading this: it has sparked my imagination about the uses of music (my own doctoral degree is in musical performance). I like books of anecdotes, like this one, as light reading. Campbell introduces the field of music therapy in plain and simple language. I read about half of this while attending a family member in the hospital, and read the rest of it in odd moments before and after that. It gave me a few ideas about how to bring in music that could help the healing. But the "science" in this book is a mess (as other reviewers here have pointed out), and the musical references are even worse. There are so many errors of fact when Campbell refers to classical compositions and composers, it gave me serious doubt whether *any* of this book is actually well researched. Titles, dates, spelling, descriptions of the music...easily verifiable facts that are laugably wrong (for example, the author asserts that Ravel's "Bolero" accelerates). A competent editor should have caught those errors, and an author who really knows the field of classical music wouldn't have written them in the first place. The author is content to pull together material from everywhere, without synthesizing it into a coherent argument. That's the strength and the weakness here. This book is fluff, merely a popularized introduction to a field. Don't expect to find convincing scientific reasoning here, or to learn much about music. Just take the music-therapy anecdotes for what they're worth: occasional success stories where people's lives have been turned around by music. The author suggests that almost any form of music can be put to use in some situation or another to help someone through a difficult time, and that's a pretty obvious thing that one would know without reading this book. (If someone is not doing well, encourage participation in some music or movement that the person resonates with; this helps the body and spirit to heal themselves. The participation takes the mind off the pain, gives a more positive outlook to life, etc., etc....anyone can figure that out without reading this book.) Music therapy is an established field; check with the trained experts. This book merely suggests what might be possible. The most valuable thing here for me was seeing where some of the scientific researchers are looking. If I want to learn more about music therapy, Campbell has given me some useful leads in those directions.
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35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Provocative, but not conclusive, July 16, 1998
By A Customer
Don Cambell writes in a personal, engaging style, making the readers enjoy pursuing the premises which he purports to explore. Ranging in style from personal anecdotes to hard scientific evindence from peer-reviewed journals, Campbell attempts to build a case for the ability of music to heal a wide range of mental and physical ills. Unfortunately, the evidence simply is not there on a scientific level. Though there are an impressive number of success stories in the book, the actual, citable research is scarce, especially for effects of music on physical health. Most of the replicable research to date concerns itself with effects mediated though stress reduction pathways: heart rate, blood pressure, and the like. When one looks for evidence of music altering immune function and disease course, the evidence becomes almost nonexistent. Campbell seems to treat almost all forms of evidence as equal; from anecdotes to articles in the popular press, to scientific ! ! studies. A more stringent review of these pieces of evidence would be of greater service to the reader, if more difficult to get through. This is especially the case in the last segment of the book, which reads like a "laundry list" of disorders ranging from cancer to international aggression (!), but is generaly one "success story" after another, with little evidence and no critical review of how general these phenomena are. Many other books in press today fall into similar traps. In defense of Mr. Campbell, it should be pointed out that when he writes of "healing," he does not generally mean "improvement in physical integrity." Rather, he appears to be more concerned with emotional/spiritual well-being. Unlike many other writers, Campbell does the reader the courtesy of explicitly stating this at several points during the book. Mr. Campbell also displays more integrity than most in the disclaimer on the bibliographic inform! ! ation page: that the book, and its recommendations, are no! substitute for care by a competent trained health care professional. Overall, then, the book is enjoyable to read, but does not succeed in building a credible scientific case for the "healing" powers of music.
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Fun Book to Read: HIDEOUS "Research" and BAD Science, July 31, 2005
This review is from: The Mozart Effect: Tapping the Power of Music to Heal the Body, Strengthen the Mind, and Unlock the Creative Spirit (Paperback)
While I've had the pleasure of hearing Don Campbell speak, his information is, sadly, quite flawed. As others have rightly noted, the "science" in this book is simply horrible and there are many with his comments concerning classical music. The fact that he also copyrighted the term "Mozart Effect" is also deplorable. Finally, this type of book is responsible for placing music and sound on the backburner at many research institutions as it falsely implies that the use of music and sound belongs to "new age" nonsense. As a rule, I cringe when I see that someone else has used this book as a reference to back up other poor research.
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