How Shostakovich Changed My Mind

For Stephen Johnson, music has a greater power to transform us, to change our minds, than the other arts. Exploring the power of Shostakovich’s music during Stalin’s reign of terror, Johnson writes of the extraordinary healing effect of music on the mind for sufferers of mental illness. Johnson looks at neurological, psychotherapeutic and philosophical findings, and reflects on his own experience, where he believes Shostakovich’s music helped him survive the trials and assaults of bipolar disorder.

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How Shostakovich Changed My Mind is one of the most powerful, honest, and profound revelations that exists on what it is that music means and does: it’s just an essential document.

Tom Service, Presenter, Music Matters

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An intensely readable, highly personal analysis of the major works of a composer.

Norman Lebrecht, Wall Street Journal

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