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psychologist vol 22 no 12
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The power of music Adrian North and David Hargreaves introduce a special issue
Incorporating Psychologist Appointments ÂŁ5 or free to members of The British Psychological Society
forum 994 news 1002 careers 1058 looking back 1076
music – shelter for the frazzled mind? 1018 in search of the language of music 1022 motivating musical learning 1026 eye on fiction: Anna Karenina 1034
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The British Psychological Society Contact The British Psychological Society St Andrews House 48 Princess Road East Leicester LE1 7DR Tel 0116 254 9568 Fax 0116 227 1314 Society website www.bps.org.uk The Psychologist e-mail psychologist@bps.org.uk General Society e-mail mail@bps.org.uk Advertising Reach 50,000 psychologists at very reasonable rates. For rates and deadlines, e-mail psyadvert@bps.org.uk or tel 0116 252 9552 For job advertising, in print or online at www.psychapp.co.uk, e-mail psychapp@bps.org.uk tel 0116 252 9550 November 2009 issue 47,863 dispatched Printed by Warners Midlands plc, Bourne, on 100 per cent recycled paper Please re-use or recycle See the online archive at www.thepsychologist.org.uk ISSN 0952-8229 © Copyright for all published material is held by The British Psychological Society, unless specifically stated otherwise. Authors, illustrators and photographers may use their own material elsewhere after publication without permission. The Society asks that the following note be included in any such use: ‘First published in The Psychologist, vol. no. and date. Published by The British Psychological Society – see www.thepsychologist.org.uk.’ As the Society is a party to the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) agreement, articles in The Psychologist may be photocopied by licensed institutional libraries for academic/teaching purposes. No permission is required. Permission is required and a reasonable fee charged for commercial use of articles by a third party. Please apply to the Society in writing. The publishers have endeavoured to trace the copyright holders of all illustrations in this publication. If we have unwittingly infringed copyright, we will be pleased, on being satisfied as to the owner’s title, to pay an appropriate fee.
Welcome to The Psychologist, the monthly publication of The British Psychological Society. It provides a forum for communication, discussion and controversy among all members of the Society, and aims to fulfil the main object of the Royal Charter, ‘to promote the advancement and diffusion of a knowledge of psychology pure and applied’. It is supported by www.thepsychologist.org.uk, where you can view this month’s issue, search the archive, listen, debate, contribute, subscribe, advertise, and more.
Welcome to a small selection of material from the forthcoming issue of The Psychologist, the monthly publication of the British Psychological Society. To purchase a PDF of this issue, see www.bpsshop.co.uk. If you are studying for a psychology qualification or have gained one in the past, you may be eligible to join the Society. See www.bps.org.uk/join for more details. For more on brain and behaviour, see www.thepsychologist.org.uk and the Society’s free Research Digest service at www.researchdigest.org.uk/blog Editor Jon Sutton Assistant Editor Peter Dillon-Hooper Production Mike Thompson Staff journalist Christian Jarrett Advertising Sarah Stainton Kirsty Wright Editorial Assistant Debbie James
Associate Editors Articles Vaughan Bell, Kate Cavanagh, Marc Jones, Rebecca Knibb, Charlie Lewis, Amina Memon, Wendy Morgan, Tom Stafford, Miles Thomas, Monica Whitty, Barry Winter
Conferences Sandie Cleland Sarah Haywood International Nigel Foreman, Asifa Majid Interviews Nigel Hunt, Lance Workman History of Psychology Julie Perks
The Psychologist Policy Committee Paul Redford (Chair), Nik Chmiel, Olivia Craig, Helen Galliard, Jeremy Horwood, David Lavallee, Catherine Loveday, Stephen McGlynn, Sheelagh Strawbridge, Henck van Bilsen, Peter Wright, and Associate Editors
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forum 994 positive psychology; academia and applied; Strictly Come Dancing; and more
THE ISSUE
news 1002 child welfare and immigration control; placement courses; reviewing primary education; debt and mental health; retirement; immersive VR; and more
According to Steven Pinker, ‘music is auditory cheesecake, an exquisite confection crafted to tickle the sensitive spots of at least six of our mental faculties’. It packs a sensual wallop, but is of little use and interest beyond that. The contributors to this special issue may beg to differ, as we hear about the impact of musical ability and interest, or the lack of it. In addition to the articles, we hear about music and change in ‘Careers’, musical genius in ‘Looking back’, and a jazz musician of the year in ‘One on one’. Finally, signing off for the year in which The Psychologist turned 21, I hope that you think we have ‘come of age’. Considering the remit and resources of a professional body’s publication, I believe we manage a decent presence, in print and online (the October issue has received more than 250,000 readers). But there is always considerable room for improvement, and I would love to hear your thoughts on topics, people, formats and more that could help us to develop further. Dr Jon Sutton (Managing Editor)
media kidnap victims in the news; and the ethics of commenting on individuals
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The role of psychology in music education Susan Hallam on the nature and importance of musical ability
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Music – shelter for the frazzled mind? Pam Heaton on music and autism
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In search of the language of music Victoria Williamson on two universals
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Motivating musical learning Jane Davidson, Robert Faulkner and Gary McPherson on taking our natural interest in music to the next level
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Lost in music 1030 Lauren Stewart on amusia, and the light it shines on musical development Eye on fiction: Unhappy in a unique way 1034 Steven Livingstone on Anna Karenina
CONNLAITH COWLEY
book reviews 1038 change management; the dopaminergic mind; others in mind; masculinities; and what your stuff says about you society 1044 President’s column; research excellence framework; effort in testing; and more 1058 careers music in change; working in Bahrain; all the latest jobs, and how to advertise looking back creative genius in classical music, with Dean Keith Simonton
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The power of music
one on one …with Raymond MacDonald
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Adrian North and David Hargreaves introduce the special issue with a look at how music psychology is changing in the digital era 1012
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ARTICLE
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The power of music Adrian C. North and David J. Hargreaves introduce the special issue with a look at how music psychology is changing in the digital era
resources
North, A.C. & Hargreaves, D.J. (2008). The social and applied psychology of music. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Brennan, F.X. & Charnetski, C.J. (2000). Stress and immune system function in a newspaper’s newsroom. Psychological Reports, 87, 218–222. Hauser, M.D. & McDermott, J. (2003). The evolution of the music faculty: A comparative perspective. Nature Neuroscience, 6, 663–668. Kimata, H. (2003). Listening to Mozart reduces allergic skin wheal responses and in vitro allergen-
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he digital revolution means that the manner in which people obtain and listen to music has changed radically since the early 1990s. Legal and illegal websites make it possible to obtain a massive range of music within moments. These sites are complemented by a panoply of digital radio, TV and internetbased stations broadcasting 24/7. Highcapacity portable digital music players mean that we can, and often do, carry our entire music library with us. All this has an important implication. North et al. (2004) and Sloboda et al. (2001) produced quantitative evidence that people’s everyday use of music is goaldirected – we use it to achieve a particular mood or state, to pass the time, to enhance interpersonal interactions, or any of many other possible tasks. The sheer range of music available to us at any point in our everyday life means that, in the digital era, people have access to precisely the kind of music that would help them to achieve whatever specific goals they are trying to meet. This in turn has a further implication for psychologists. If the opportunity widely exists to, and a significant number of people actually do, use music to achieve a wide range of goals, there is a need for an applied psychology of music. In our recent book The Social and Applied Psychology of Music (North & Hargreaves, 2008) we attempted to map out what this field might look like. We argued that the digital revolution and subsequent emphasis of music researchers on the implications of musical behaviour means that the paradigm in which many
T
As music becomes more commonplace and accessible, should society value it less or more?
references
questions
The digital revolution has led to music being increasingly integrated into the stream of daily life. This in turn has led to researchers showing greater interest in the effects of music on a wide range of thoughts and behaviours. This article looks at three potential roles of music; namely, in selfinjurious behaviours; in reducing pain and increasing immunity; and in promoting animal welfare.
specific IgE production in atopic dermatitis patients with latex allergy. Behavioral Medicine, 29, 15–19. Kirkpatrick, F.H. (1942). Music and the factory worker. Psychological Record, 5, 197–204. Kirkpatrick, F.H. (1943a). Music in industry. Journal of Applied Psychology, 27, 268–274. Kirkpatrick, F.H. (1943b). Take the mind away. Personnel Journal, 22, 225–228.
conduct their research has shifted over the past 20 years. During the 1970s and 1980s, research on listening to music was dominated by cognitive issues, such as memory, attention and understanding of musical syntax. It is tempting to view this dominance as resulting from the lesscontextualised manner in which listening typically occurred at the time. Under these less-contextualised circumstances, the music would, of course, more likely be the focus of attention. So rather than considering the social, external world, it made more sense to focus on the listener’s inner mental world. Moreover, this cognitive focus and lack of consideration of the interaction between musical behaviour and the context in which it took place led to highly reductionist, experimental procedures. This approach contrasts sharply with much of the present-day research which, although it certainly does not ignore cognitive factors, is primarily concerned with the reciprocal influence between these and contextualised, real-life musical behaviours. This special issue of The Psychologist looks at musical ability; how and why people let music into their lives, and the impact of musical proficiency (or a lack of it). It becomes clear that music is important to us; a source of pride, enjoyment, even solace. At least two of the articles here reflect the long-standing interest within the field, dating back to Ancient Greece, in clinical- and healthrelated issues among particular subpopulations. For the remainder of our article, we address three other healthrelated implications of music that lie outside those that have been studied traditionally.
Rock music and self-injurious behaviour
The rise of heavy rock with supposedly pro-suicide lyrics in the 1970s and 1980s led to legislation (e.g. attempts to ban sales of CDs featuring a ‘parental advisory’ sticker), public protest (e.g. by the
Lai, H. & Good, M. (2005). Music improves sleep quality in older adults. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 49, 234–244. MacDonald, R.A.R., Mitchell, L.A., Dillon, T. et al. (2003). An empirical investigation of the anxiolytic and pain reducing effects of music. Psychology of Music, 31, 187–203. McCarthy, D.O., Ouimet, M.E. & Daun, J.M. (1992). The effects of noise
stress on leukocyte function in rats. Research in Nursing and Health, 15, 131–137. Mitchell, L.A., MacDonald, R.A.R. & Brodie, E.E. (2006). A comparison of the effects of preferred music, arithmetic and humour on cold pressor pain. European Journal of Pain, 10, 343–351. North, A.C. & Hargreaves, D.J. (2000). Musical preference during and after
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Parents’ Music Resource Center), and background and self-esteem, which raises many apparently bizarre local actions the issue of which of the latter is the (e.g. the suspension of a Michigan high better predictor of the former. school pupil for wearing a T-shirt promoting Korn that featured no lyrics Pain, stress and immunity or words apart from the band’s name). Other research paints a more positive The assumption on which these were picture of the relationship between music based, namely that the music causes selfand health. Although music therapy is injurious thoughts and actions, is not so stereotyped as addressing psychological far-fetched as might seem, as several problems, some recent studies have studies suggest at least a correlation demonstrated its role in treating between music and suicide. For example, conventional physical disorders. The Stack et al. (1994) found a link between most convincing evidence comes from suicide rates among teenage Americans Standley’s (1995) meta-analysis of 55 and variations in subscriptions to a heavy studies concerning the effect rock magazine; of music on 129 medically and we (North related variables. Podiatric and Hargreaves, pain, paediatric respiration, 2006) have pulse, blood pressure and use found that fans of analgesia (in dental of rock and rap patients), pain, medication were more in paediatric surgery patients likely than and EMG all showed effect others to sizes over 2, and the mean consider effect size over all 129 suicide and variables was .88, meaning to self-harm. that the impact of music was Other research, almost one standard though, is less deviation greater than suggestive of without music. a link. We have Arguably the largest single also found body of literature concerns the (North & Labelling music as suicideimpact of music on chronic Hargreaves, inducing may be helping to create pain, pain experienced during 2006) that the problem and after treatment, and pain thoughts of experienced specifically by suicide and selfcancer patients and those harm precede an undergoing palliative care (e.g. MacDonald interest in rock, so that the latter can’t et al., 2003; Mitchell et al., 2006). Research have caused the former. Similarly, merely suggests that music can mediate pain in describing a song as ‘suicide-inducing’ or these cases by distracting the patient’s ‘life-affirming’ leads listeners to perceive it attention from it and/or by increasing their as such (North & Hargreaves, 2005); by perceived control over the pain (since if labelling music as suicide-inducing, patients believe that they have access to campaigners and legislators may be music as a means of pain control, then this helping to create the problem they aim belief itself decreases the aversiveness of to eradicate. Other research (North & pain). Similar research on stress has Hargreaves, 2006; Scheel & Westefeld, yielded the not entirely unsurprising 1999; Schwartz & Fouts, 2003; Stack et conclusion that it may be reduced by al., 1994) shows that the correlation music; but also that the amount of stress between suicidal tendencies and an reduction varies according to age, the interest in rock is mediated by family
relaxation and exercise. American Journal of Psychology, 113, 43–67. North, A.C. & Hargreaves, D.J. (2005). Labelling effects on the perceived deleterious consequences of pop music listening. Journal of Adolescence, 28, 433–440. North, A.C. & Hargreaves, D.J. (2006). Problem music and self-harming. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 36, 582–590.
North, A.C. & Hargreaves, D.J. (2008). The social and applied psychology of music. Oxford: Oxford University Press. North, A.C., Hargreaves, D.J. & Hargreaves, J.J. (2004). The uses of music in everyday life. Music Perception, 22, 63–99. Panksepp, J. & Bernatzky, G. (2002). Emotional sounds and the brain: the neuro-affective foundations of musical appreciation. Behavioural
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stressor, the listener’s musical preference, and their prior level of musical experience (e.g. Pelletier, 2004). More interestingly still, this reduction in stress manifests itself through physical measures, such as reduced levels of cortisol, and this has a very provocative further implication. Lower levels of stress are associated with greater immunity to illness of course, and several studies have indicated effects of music listening on physical measures of immune system strength, such as salivary immunoglobulin A (e.g. Brennan & Charnetski, 2000). Although the mechanism by which this occurs is not well understood, the implication is clear: music contributes directly to physical health. This allows us to make a strong case for music therapy, since it has implications for finance-related variables, such as the amount of drugs that patients require and the amount of time they spend in hospital. Furthermore, pain, immunity and stress are implicated in such a range of physical problems that the health effects of music might be much wider-ranging than the present research suggests. Perhaps we should not be surprised, for instance, that both Lai and Good (2005) and Tan (2004) showed that music can improve sleep quality, and that Kimata (2003) showed that music can alleviate allergic responses, both of which have further health implications of their own.
Animal welfare
The impact of music on well-being may not be limited to humans. Ethological research on the functions and learning of birdsong is well known; and there is research concerning human perception of music that has considered how nonhumans do so (see Hauser & McDermott, 2003; Panksepp & Bernatzky, 2002; Wallin et al., 2000). However, there is a growing body of evidence specifically concerning music and animal welfare. Perhaps the clearest example is provided by Wells et al. (2002), who played classical music, heavy metal music,
Processes, 60, 133–155. Pelletier, C.L. (2004). The effect of music on decreasing arousal due to stress. Journal of Music Therapy, 41, 192–214. Peretti, P.O. & Kippschull, H. (1990). Influence of five types of music on social behaviors of mice, Mus musculus. Psychological Studies, 35, 98–103. Scheel, K.R. & Westefeld, J.S. (1999). Heavy metal music and adolescent
suicidality. Adolescence, 34, 253–273. Schwartz, K.D. & Fouts, G.T. (2003). Music preferences, personality style, and developmental issues of adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 32, 205–213. Sloboda, J.A., O’Neill, S.A. & Ivaldi, A. (2001). Functions of music in everyday life: an exploratory study using the experience sampling method. Musicae Scientiae, 5, 9–32.
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pop music, human conversation, and a control to 50 dogs housed in an animal rescue shelter. The classical music was arguably the most soothing, and it is interesting that it led to the dogs spending more time resting, more time quiet, and less time standing. In contrast, arguably the least soothing music, heavy metal, led to more time barking. In a similar unpublished study, we played fast- and slow-tempo music to dairy cows in their winter enclosures. Milk yield, indicative of the cows’ well-being, was higher in the slow than the fast music condition, suggesting that the slower music led to lower stress. Similarly, McCarthy et al. (1992) found that exposing rats to stressinducing rock music could reduce their ability to heal wounds; and Peretti and Kippschull (1990, p.51) played music to mice over two weeks and found that ‘(1) classical music produced more interaction, What do we mean by ‘musical taste’ and ‘expert composition’ when a dog can enjoy including aggression… and (5) rock Beethoven? tended to increase aggression’. Just as research on humans shows that we select calming music to reduce the impact of a stressful environment on us (e.g. North & truly ‘aesthetic’. That may well be true of experienced, such that it is breaking new Hargreaves, 2000), so it seems that this course, but as we have seen already, much ground quickly. Similarly, it would be facile same calming music has just the same of humans’ everyday musical behaviour is to characterise the field as trivial by asking effect when played to non-humans. similarly functional. Is there really much why, for example, anybody should care Again the potential implications of this difference between a tired human listening about what music will help to sell baked are extensive and provocative. Most to a soothing song on the car stereo during beans in a supermarket. In response, we obviously, what do we mean the drive home, and a would argue that, as the research described by ‘musical taste’ and dog in a shelter being here illustrates well, the applied ‘expert composition’ when calmed by psychology of music has direct financial “the applied psychology we are confronted with background classical implications that safeguard music and of music has direct evidence that a dog can music? musicians from budget cuts imposed by financial implications” enjoy Beethoven? Does the In conclusion, politicians and accountants. It also has a possibility that a cow may some might be tempted far ‘meatier’ implication, namely that the be calmed by classical to dismiss the applied field, and those examples of it described music mean that it shouldn’t be thought psychology of music as ‘nothing new’, here, call into question the very nature of suitable for the dinner menu? Are these pointing out, for example, that music how we conceive of ‘musical behaviour’. kinds of effect widespread and identifiable therapy has a centuries-long tradition, or The implications of digitisation and our among a variety of species, such that all that research on the impact of music on changing relationship with music mean animals respond similarly to the same employees’ productivity goes back to the that our understanding of ‘musical music on the basis of the same production lines of the Second World War behaviour’ and the very nature of music neurophysiology, and if so then would this (e.g. Kirkpatrick, 1942, 1943a, 1943b). We psychology itself must change also. mean that music should be regarded as less have provided a few brief illustrations here, or more of an art form than at present? Of however, of how the applied psychology of course, a cynic could claim that the effects music has recently begun to demonstrate I Adrian North of music we have described here are in fact numerous and varied interactions between is in the School of Life just functional behaviours that are not music and the context in which it is Sciences, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh a.north@hw.ac.uk Stack, S., Gundlach, J. & Reeves, J.L. (1994). The heavy metal subculture and suicide. Suicide and LifeThreatening Behavior, 24, 15–23. Standley, J. (1995). Music as a therapeutic intervention in medical and dental treatment. In T. Wigram, B. Saperstone & R. West (Eds.) The art and science of music therapy (pp.3–22). Langhorne, PA: Harwood. Tan, L.P. (2004). The effects of
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background music on quality of sleep in elementary school children. Journal of Music Therapy, 41, 128–150. Wallin, N.L. Merker, B. & Brown, S. (Eds.) (2000). The origins of music. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Wells, D.L., Graham, L. & Hepper, P.G. (2002). The influence of auditory stimulation on the behaviour of dogs housed in a rescue shelter. Animal Welfare, 11, 385–393.
I David Hargreaves
is in the Centre for International Research on Creativity and Learning in Education (CIRCLE), Roehampton University
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Blogging on brain and behaviour The British Psychological Society’s free Research Digest service: blog, email, Twitter and Facebook ‘An amazingly useful and interesting resource’ Ben Goldacre, The Guardian
www.researchdigest.org.uk/blog
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beginning, as she arrives in Moscow to try, with her usual tact and sympathy, to effect reconciliation. At Stephan’s house Anna meets Vronsky, a dashing cavalry officer, with whom Dolly’s younger sister Kitty is infatuated. The character of Levin is introduced, a troubled and introspective young man, who is in love with Kitty, Steven Livingstone on difficult paths and last taboos in Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and who returns to his country estate in despair when his proposal is rejected by her. Vronsky, however, is fascinated by Anna, and recklessly pursues her. She initially spurns him, but in the end she n summer 2004 Oprah’s Book Club cannot deny that she has fallen in love the question remains: if Anna were alive highlighted Anna Karenina. Oprah had with him. today, in our more liberal society and confessed that she always had a fear of The couple leave Russia together, but with a prescription for an antidepressant, reading Anna Karenina, mainly because of Karenin refuses to grant a divorce, unless would things have worked out better its length. Hence, she and her viewers Anna renounces the right to see her son. for her? approached their summer’s reading of AK She is miserable at having left her son in like an arduous long-distance run. Karenin’s care, and returns in secret to see Into life’s corridor Through the magic of the internet, I am the boy. Far from pacifying her, this Written in instalments from 1873 to 1877 able to re-live the show as though it were meeting only sharpens her despair. in the periodical The Russian Messenger, yesterday… Vronsky is restless and misses his military AK still enjoys huge popularity and a high Narrator: ‘They came from across the career, which he had to abandon to follow globe, Oprah Book Clubbers ready to take profile in popular culture: curiously it her. Anna goes from disillusionment to even pops up in Will and Grace, where on the Anna Karenina 2004 challenge. disillusionment, becomes consumed with Jennifer Lopez makes a guest appearance Eight long sections, 817 pages, 23 jealousy, and ultimately her life becomes reading it on the subway. Its continued complicated Russian names. The only intolerable to her. When she throws success is striking considering its length thing to fear was fear itself. They would herself under a train, she fulfills the and complexity, as battle the elements, summer heat, busy epigram of the novel: alluded to by family schedules, obstacles at every turn. ‘Vengeance is mine, and Oprah. If it is a Some would stumble, exhausted from I shall repay.’ Vronsky is masterpiece, it is reading. But could they pick themselves consumed with remorse and “Anna breaks what may certainly not the up and press on to the final chapter? enlists to fight the Turks, a be our last taboo: she is a ‘flawless’ Could they do it? Could they read Anna course of action equivalent to woman who abandons masterpiece that Karenina in just one summer? Could they suicide. her child for her lover” both Fyodor conquer Tolstoy?’ In counterpoint to this Dostoyevsky and Group of people, chanting in unison: dark, violent story, there is the Vladimir Nabokov ‘Anna, Anna, Anna, Anna’. relationship of Kitty and Levin. described it as, and the long passages on The opening guest of the Book Club After initially rejecting him, Kitty returns Russian peasant agricultural techniques episode was a regular on the couch, The to Levin, won over by his integrity and will hardly be of interest to modern Music and the Passion himself, Mr Barry strength of character. Levin is surely one readers, if indeed they were ever of Manilow. Manilow began by singing, to of the most rounded characters in fiction, interest. What, then, is the key to AK’s the tune of ‘Copacabana’, ‘Her name was and one Tolstoy drew on his own enduring appeal? Anna, Anna Karenina … The hottest character to create. His relationship with Most of us, even those who have not broad north of the Kremlin.’ Kitty, which is essentially a happy one, is read AK, may nonetheless be familiar with But the final word of the show came complex and totally believable. from Megan Mullally, aka Karen from Will both how it begins and how it ends. The Anna’s story, on the other hand, is novel opens with the famous and oftand Grace, who was most intrigued in her primarily one of depression. One of the quoted sentence, ‘All happy families are reading by Anna’s mental unravelling: ‘Of few descriptions of Anna’s happiness alike, but an unhappy family is unhappy course, now she’d just, like, take some comes early in the novel. Recognising in its own unique way.’ The novel ends Paxil and it’d all be good. But they didn’t the young Kitty’s coquettish excitement with one of the most famous suicides in have mood stabilisers back then before a ball, Anna says, ‘Oh yes, it is literary history, and the inevitability of apparently.’ good to be your age… I remember that Anna’s death only serves to make the So, that is to say that Oprah and her blue haze, like the haze on the mountains tragedy of her life all the sadder. army of Nike-shod women did indeed, in Switzerland. That haze which envelops Anna is married to Karenin, an chapter by chapter, ‘conquer’ Tolstoy, everything at the blissful time when important government official, a dry and practically trampling him under their airchildhood is just coming to and end, self-satisfied man 20 years her senior. The cushioned feet. And I would not like to and its huge merry circle narrows to a famous opening sentence refers to the say that this is a bad thing, since path which one treads gaily yet with family of Stephan Oblonsky, Anna’s doubtless Oprah brought AK to hundreds dread into life’s corridor, bright and brother. Stephan has been cheating on his of people who would never have splendid as it appears… Who has not wife with his children’s French governess, otherwise attempted it. Oprah’s Book passed through it?’ and his wife Dolly has found out. Our Club is off-air now, and her viewers are Anna will enter the bright and sympathies are with Anna from the very patiently awaiting her instructions, but beautiful path one last time to triumph at
Unhappy in a unique way
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the ball, where she boldly dances the mazurka with Vronsky. From that beautiful, blue-misted high point the path indeed grows ever narrower for Anna. But would her path, as suggested by Megan Mullally, be any easier to tread today? Certainly, in the 21st century, the apex of female achievement extends beyond dancing the mazurka, and she would no longer be trapped a ballroom like a great fluttering swan. There would be no boredom – with her intelligence, charm and beauty, it is easy to imagine Anna in any of the hip, high-powered Sex in the City jobs (Sex in the City, incidentally, being another show to have referenced Anna Karenina. When Carrie is turned off by her Russian lover’s overly romantic gestures, Miranda advises her to tell him that ‘He’s dating you, not Anna Karenina’). With her love of literature, it is possible to see Anna writing an inspirational, Shirley Valentine-type story, perhaps with the aid of sympathetic psychologist, and – if need be – an appropriate SSRI. Paxil could be seen as a more sophisticated substitute for its 19th-century equivalent, the morphine Anna was using to self-medicate. She might even get a six-figure advance and a slot on Oprah’s couch.
Taylor-Wood remembers feeling bemused the day her mother handed her a note that said, ‘Give this to your step-dad because I’m leaving you all.’ Taylor-Wood recalls how ‘one day I saw her and she was living three doors away. I saw the blind in the kitchen go up, and there she was. Then she pulled it down again. I still can’t believe she was there. It was extraordinary.’ Stories like this are painful, the mothers seem selfish, unnatural and hard
The last taboo
So in answer to the question posed on Oprah: yes, thanks to the ways in which society has moved on, in the present day Anna’s story might have ended happily. But this answer ignores the fact that Anna breaks what may be our last taboo: she is a woman who abandons her child for her lover. In The Female Eunuch, published in 1970, Germaine Greer painted a devastatingly bleak portrait of family life, in which she argued that women should not be afraid to walk out of their marriages, if necessary leaving their children behind. ‘Mother is the dead heart of the family’, wrote Greer. But back in the real world, high-profile women who abandon their children face widespread disapproval. Princess Diana was only six when her mother left to marry another man. She would later recollect that she and her younger brother, Charles, cried themselves to sleep together. The actor John Thaw’s mother ran off with another man, leaving him in charge of his younger brother, while his lorry-driver father was away. Thaw was seven. His widow, Sheila Hancock, concluded that his abrasive approach to life stemmed from this early experience. As a child, the artist Sam
to understand. It’s the child we feel sorry for, not the mother. To me, the exploration of this complex and still contemporary issue is one of the keys to AK’s enduring success. In Anna, Tolstoy has created a character who we can understand and sympathise with, and while the reader is left to make up their own mind about the rights and wrongs of her actions, most will find it hard to either condemn or condone. To the casual reader, the novel may seem like nothing more than a tragic romance set in the top tier of 19th-century Russian aristocratic society, and as such, Anna’s difficulties have little connection to the way we live now. Look beyond the surface, however, and we will see that the major theme of the novel is the struggle
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to find a moral and yet also fulfilling way to lead one’s life. Anna is trapped in the dilemma of whether to choose her love for Vronsky, at the expense of abandoning her son, or to choose her love of her son, at the expense of her own happiness. Plus ça change plus c’est pareil, as the pretentious and moralising Countess Lydia Ivanovna might have put it. The complexities involved in the pursuit of happiness are as relevant today as they ever were, and pose a dilemma that will be familiar to psychologists both in our personal and professional lives. In fact, the principle that in any system no one factor guarantees success but many guarantee failure, has become known as the Anna Karenina principle, and is based on the quotation from the novel, ‘All happy families are alike, but an unhappy family is unhappy in its own unique way.’ Writing in the Telegraph Magazine in 2006, Judith WenbanSmith, a chartered psychologist with a special interest in children, wrote, ‘Mothers who walk out on their children can now support themselves and maintain social profiles – they are neither beggars nor pariahs – and that’s a good thing.’ It is true that today, Anna would not have had to leave the country, as she does in the novel. But that doesn’t mean children don’t get hurt. ‘Children suffer more from the absence of mothers than they do fathers, undoubtedly,’ Wenban-Smith continues. ‘Almost invariably, the mother has been the main carer in infancy and it’s to mothers that children have the strongest and most secure attachment.’ Mothers who leave can have the best possible motives, but to a child, it boils down to one thing. ‘They will come to the conclusion that mummy didn’t love them enough, and that can be devastating.’ So no, a prescription for Paxil would not be the solution. I Steven Livingstone is a clinical psychologist at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London steven.livingstone@iop.kcl.ac.uk
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