Arts and Health: Music by Eugene Beresin, MD

Music is an art form but also a social activity. It is a part of every human society, contributing to community, culture, and a sense of group identity. It is also fundamental to individual identity and personal well-being. In Music, Eugene Beresin traces the possible applications of musical expression for human health and happiness.

At the heart of Music are powerful examples from the lives of real individuals, families, and populations. These stories cover a myriad of ages, instruments, situations, and purposes, to convey the universal power of music to help us all get more out of life.

Offering practical ideas for integrating musical practice into a wide range of settings from the medical to the personal, Beresin provides a compelling evocation of the healing power of music. It is a must-read for practitioners, teachers, counsellors, and lovers of the art form.

About the Arts for Health Series from Emerald Publishing

Imagine a world without art, music, film, singing, dancing, comedy or reading. It would be a very dull place. It would also prove very unhealthy. For a long time now, creative activities in the arts and humanities have offered people worldwide a kind shadow health service, a non-clinical means of maintaining or improving their health and wellbeing. But information about the potential benefits of engaging with creative activities for physical or mental health has not always been made clear.

The Arts for Health series seeks to offer a ground-breaking set of short, easy-to-read books that guide the general public caring for themselves or others, health and social care professionals and those working in charitable or community-led social and cultural initiatives on how different creative activities or practices can help people stay healthy or improve their physical and mental health.

Praise for Arts for Health: Music

“Music and the arts reach around all corners of the world and into all corners of our life and Dr. Eugene Beresin details many aspects of their purpose and importance in his book Arts For Health: Music. I think this is important information to share and it reinforces what all of us musicians and artists already know…that the arts (regardless of their type), when done with the right intention, are healing arts.

-Jeff Coffin, 3x Grammy winning saxophonist, composer, educator, author. Dave Matthews Band, Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, Ear Up Records founder, The Mu’tet.

“Music is certainly a pleasurable and universal part of the human experience, but is it really possible that harms could be assuaged through harmonies, symptoms soothed by symphonies, remedies found in rhythm? As an expert Harvard physician, healer, and musician, Dr. Gene Beresin makes a forceful and persuasive case that the answer is a resounding, “yes” – scientifically elucidating and affirming music’s psycho-biological therapeutic effects and uncovering its power to heal. Informative, instructive, inspirational, students, clinicians, patients, and family members, will find solace and joy here.”

-John F. Kelly, PhD, ABPP Elizabeth R. Spallin Professor of Psychiatry in Addiction Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Director of the Recovery Research Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA USA. Award-winning songwriter, singer, musician, and producer.

“If you are in the group of people that think music is ancillary to your life – or extracurricular or non-essential – but have been waiting for someone to prove you wrong, look no further! Dr. Eugene Beresin has comprehensively, and in simple language, dispelled any hypothesis of the kind in his book, Arts For Health: Music. From heartfelt personal testimonies to factual medical data, this book beautifully explains the effect music universally has on humanity and why it’s important for individual well-being. It is a must have for all music teachers, students and professionals, as it gives language to what we innately already know.”

– Terri Lyne Carrington – Grammy Award winning, drummer/composer/producer/activist, who is played with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Stan Getz, Al Jarreau and many others.