Psychoneuroimmunology?
Don't take fright, says Nick Jones. Author Daisy Fancourt actually talks a lot of good sense, he asserts, in this convincing exposition.
EVER SINCE I read the headline news "Scientists discover that mother's milk is good for babies" I've maintained a healthy scepticism regarding scientific Eureka! moments.
Hearing that Daisy Fancourt had written Art Cure explaining the science behind why and how the arts can be good for health and wellbeing, I thought, surely we take that as read?
Anne of Green Gables realised, aged eleven, that "it's the imagination, stupid". Einstein considered imagination more important than knowledge. This book should not need to have been written, but thank goodness it has.
Daisy Fancourt writes from head and heart. An accomplished musician, she knows the power of song and music to heal, and, as mother of a premature baby, to communicate. An authority in her field, she is Director of the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for the Arts and Health. This book is packed with clinical evidence (81 of 329 pages are notes!) confirming the transformative power of the arts.
Not that long ago taking part in the arts was intrinsic to daily life; singing, dancing, storytelling, making the beautiful and useful. Modernity "created" a "culture" (to misuse and devalue both words) that just doesn't get it. Government definitely doesn't, but why would they? Art is naturally unpredictable, chaotic, anarchic and dangerous. Best tamed, confined to safe spaces like museums, galleries and theatres and elevated as high art (connoisseurs and cognoscenti only, thank you!), or commercialised, pricing it out of the reach of the hoi poloi. Even better (or worse, depending on your point of view), cut investment in arts education, libraries and arts centres.
Great (or tragic, take your pick) to see that policy is working, not just here but across the pond. In her National Humanities Lecture Turkish novelist Elif Shafak cited a Yale University study showing arts and humanities degrees in the USA halving between 2002 and 2022, with an even steeper decline in the UK.
The rationale? STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) make more money, supposedly. A moot point, belied by a quick search into the monetary value of the arts and creativity. But at what greater cost? Shafak, again: "If you want a healthy and harmonious civil society, invest in humanity and the arts, for they foster understanding, knowledge and empathy."
So, what to do if both business and Government don't get it? This is where Daisy's book comes into its own. She explains clearly just why engaging with the arts is good for your health. Not just the what, but the how and the why. Explaining in forensic detail how we remember the songs of our youth, and how they can help stave off dementia in later life, she takes us on a deep dive into the inner realms of the brain, specifically the caudal anterior cingulate gyrus and the ventral pre-supplementary motor area. Neither of which I'm familiar with, at least not consciously.
Faced with psychoneuroimmunology, I feel a plot-losing moment coming on! I'm sticking with it though, much heartened by the claim by economists (Government commissioned too!) that engaging with the arts saves the country £15billion a year. Not so much more, more, but better, better!
Writer, philosopher and activist Satish Kumar puts it so well in "Elegant Simplicity, the art of living well." In the chapter "A society of artists" he writes "We are ruled by numbers, obsessed by the economy, and possessed by speed – all enemies of beauty. The monster of ugly materialism is haunting the modern world. The goddess of beauty has vanished from the house of humanity. When we are bereft of beauty we are also bereft of truth. Only art, which means making by hand, can cure the problems of humanity."
It's a big deal to claim that art and imagination can save humanity from itself, but the current way, exploiting people and planet, can only end in tears.
Daisy's book is a wake-up call for that "seatbelt moment", the realisation that the arts are intrinsic to a good life; we can't afford to live without them.
Art Cure. Cornerstone Press. £ 22.
