Customer Reviews

The Mozart Effect: Tapping the Power of Music to Heal the Body, Strengthen the Mind, and Unlock the Creative Spirit

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

When I first picked up this book, I was hoping that it would talk about the research done at UC Irvine by Gordon Shaw and his lab. I was shocked to find only a brief mentioning of it. Most of the book seemed non-scientific, and I felt that it tricked me into buying another New Age pseudo-science book.

This book is basically an advertisement for the author's line of CDs and cassettes. The author is highly biased towards an obscure 1993 study (which the author did not participate in) that seems to undoubtedly show that listening to Mozart for 10 minutes before a spatial/temporal test increased relative IQ by 9 points. Since then the term "mozart effect" has been trademarked but no government or university researcher has been able to duplicate the effect. One analysis of the results of 700 students showed a very slight (2 points) improvement in those who listened to the music, but it was deemed statistically insignificant. These research results were conveniently left out of the book. Notice that the "Customers who bought this book also bought" section here on Amazon shows that there is a strong correlation between the purchase of this book and the purchase of overpriced tapes and CDs from Don Campbell. That's the marketing tail wagging the dog. Before buying this book, search the Internet for "mozart effect" and find out the truth for yourself. Don't bother with this self-hyped panacea.

There is no scientific basis for the "Mozart effect," none at all. The experiment in question was conducted on adults, not babies. The results of that experiment implied that the subjects actively listening to music immediately before taking intelligence tests performed slightly better on those tests because they were more alert than the subjects who had been day dreaming in silence.
Those seeking scientific papers thoroughly debunking this silliness will find them in "The Biological Foundations of Music," published by the New York Academy of Sciences (ISBN 1-57331-307-6), which is currently out of print, but is probably available at your local library.
"Music, the Brain and Ecstasy" by Robert Jourdain is an excellent introduction to music cognition. Howard Goodall's "Big Bangs" and Dowling and Harwood's "Music Cognition" can be purchased used and will be appreciated by advanced musicians and novices alike.
Parents wishing to introduce their children (and themselves) to music might consider purchasing "Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts," which are insightful and an absolute joy to watch.
Do not buy "The Mozart Effect." It is a waste of your time and money. Instead, just order some Mozart or Brahms or Bach, sit down, and listen to it: you don't need Campbell's manipulative schlock to help you "unlock the creative spirit" within.

As a musician and a music teacher, I really wanted to like this book. I already agree with the authour on many points having to do with the value of music in overall well being. However, what I need most are not unsubstantiated anecdotes or third person hearsay, but some actual scientific evidence of music's ability to heal. This pseudo-science does a disservice to serious music teachers, especially those who need objective scientific data to justify the existence of music in the public school. No rational person is going to be convinced by this volume of wishful thinking and new age fantasy. Sorry, Don.

I absolutely disagree with any reviewer who states that this book
lacks substantiation. The "recommended reading" section is seven pages long and lists several dozen books written by academics, scientists, medical doctors and therapists. The "resources" section is eleven pages long and lists active training and music therapy centers in Europe, Asia and North and South America. The "footnotes" section is twenty-two pages long. This is an entertaining and well written overview of the field of music therapy and would benefit any person interested in expanding human potential. I've been involved in music for twenty-four years including record and concert production and hosting a daily radio program. I've had the opportunity to come in direct contact with some of the world's greatest musicians and I feel certain most of them would find this book fascinating. I certainly did. I also received scientific training as an undergraduate at an Ivy League university (neuroscience at Princeton) and did not find this book deficient in any way.

Sorry, Don Campbell, but I was enthusiastic when first encountering your work, including this book when it was issued. Unfortunately, I have studied the subject of this book in some depth the past few years, and have seen my rating of the "Mozart effect" fall from 5 to 1 stars. After Campbell patented the use of the book`s title (luckily not the word "Mozart") and became a best seller, recent research has revealed that "The Mozart effect" is neither specific to music nor to Mozart`s music, but an unspecific sensory stimulation effect that proves that it is important to get sufficient sensory stimulation, no more, no less. The problem with Campbell is that he offers little in the way of reflection, discussion, skepticism or nuancing - the colors are bright, the strokes from the brush are broad, the words are big. There is little trace of scientific thinking and reasoning in any of his books. Then he should not present it as science, semiscience or part science. Campbell has been lauded, while hard-working music therapists, both inspired and competent have been ignored. Now comes the time to redress the balance.

Don Campbell is a gifted lecturer, lightweight and appealing, who deserves credit for his ability to present complex material in a palatable way. I have also enjoyed his metaphysical musings, like in the book "The roar of silence", replete with valuable exercises.

But where this book goes wrong, is Campbell trying to fill us in on "the newest research on music", revealing Mozart`s music to be a Rosetta stone of healing, toilets that play Mary had a little lamb as treatment for incontinence, resonant music as a cure for diabetes, etc. Campbell has never undergone the first steps of the rigorous training anyone even dabbling in research has to undertake. Thus, when he refers "the latest research", his conclusions are his own, and would be decried even by the authors of the papers themselves - it sometimes seems that the frontpage eyecatch entertainment value takes priority over facts.
I think D. C. has written an entertaining and inspiring book. But he should have kept it at that (like Anthony Storr`s Music and the mind) and not mislead the public with confusing and distirted pictures of where science is at as regards music.