Full Description
For readers of Oliver Sacks and Being Mortal by Atul Gawande comes a "shimmery account of performing ... for a series of patients with varied afflictions, including the inevitable final one."—New York Times
A celebrated art therapist plays the cello for her patients—and offers a moving reflection on the extraordinary power of music to enrich our lives, all the way to the very end.
When Claire Oppert plays the cello, miracles happen. Children with profound autism, patients in extreme pain and distress, even people on the threshold of death smile, cry, laugh, sing and dance. "When you play, I'm not sick anymore," one man tells her. "I feel happy, I feel alive."
In The Schubert Treatment, Oppert recounts her remarkable story of healing suffering through music, alongside portraits of the many people she has helped. Born into a family of doctors and artists, Oppert trained as a classical cellist and began playing at a center for autistic youth, where she witnessed how music could connect with even the most difficult-to-reach patients. Later, she began working as an art therapist with people with neurodegenerative diseases and palliative care patients, eventually conducting clinical trials that proved the effect of her "Schubert treatment": using music as a counter-stimulation to reduce pain and anxiety during stressful procedures.
Oppert's crystalline, lyrical vignettes of the patients whose lives she has touched are punctuated with anecdotes from her own life as a musician, as well as reflections on the meaning of art and the human need for connection and creativity. Compassionate, uplifting, and deeply humane, The Schubert Treatment is a testament to the incredible power of music to heal our bodies, minds, and souls.
Contents
Prologue
A Good Story
Paul
Through the Wall
Paul, the Explosion
Howard
Amélia
My Father
Dîlan
The Cello
David
Encounter
Holding Space
Russia
Poets in Space
The Moscow Conservatory
A Musical Ballet
The Turn
A Day Like Any Other
She and Him
Faculty of Medicine
The Poet on the Second Floor
The Book: A Life
Writing
The Legion of Honor Exhibition
Musical Transfer
Painting the Seasons
In the Metro
Leading Lady
A New Place
Monsieur Roy's Blood Test
Clinical Trials
Madame Moretti's Bath
Research
Bitter Medicine and the Breath of Music
Results
Monsieur Koumba
Music Is a Force
Madame Müller
Music Is a Friend
Monsieur Rivière
Music Is Life
Monsieur Lebrun
Music Is Vibration
Monsieur Martin
Music Is Living Memory
Madame Azaro
Music Is Flight
Monsieur Fridman
Music Is Silence
Madame Bellec
Music Is a Child's Song
Monsieur Loiseau
Music Is Resonance
Madame Rameau
Music Is Light
Madame Adélaïde
Music Is Voice
Madame Cazeneuve
Music Is Provocation
Madame Bloch
Music Is Danger
Madame Beauchamp
Music Is Deliverance
Monsieur Khalil
Music Is Rhythm
Madame Ricci
Music Is a Dream
Madame Fontaine
Music Is Joy
Madame Eleonora
Music Is Movement
Monsieur N'Daye
Music Is a Meeting
My Mother
Epilogue
Undercurrent
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
