the psychologist december 2009

psychologistthe

december 2009vol 22 no 12

The power ofmusicAdrian North and David Hargreavesintroduce a special issue

music – shelter for the frazzled mind? 1018in search of the language of music 1022motivating musical learning 1026eye on fiction: Anna Karenina 1034

£5 or free to members of The British Psychological Society

forum 994news 1002

careers 1058looking back 1076

Incorporating Psychologist Appointments

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vol 22 no 12 december 2009

Editor Jon SuttonAssistant EditorPeter Dillon-Hooper Production Mike Thompson Staff journalistChristian Jarrett AdvertisingSarah StaintonKirsty WrightEditorial Assistant Debbie James

Associate EditorsArticlesVaughan Bell, KateCavanagh, MarcJones, RebeccaKnibb, Charlie Lewis,Amina Memon, WendyMorgan, Tom Stafford,Miles Thomas, MonicaWhitty, Barry Winter

ConferencesSandie ClelandSarah HaywoodInternationalNigel Foreman, Asifa Majid InterviewsNigel Hunt, Lance WorkmanHistory of PsychologyJulie Perks

The PsychologistPolicy CommitteePaul Redford (Chair),Nik Chmiel, OliviaCraig, Helen Galliard,Jeremy Horwood,David Lavallee,Catherine Loveday,Stephen McGlynn,Sheelagh Strawbridge,Henck van Bilsen,Peter Wright, andAssociate Editors

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© Copyright for all published material is heldby The British Psychological Society, unlessspecifically stated otherwise. Authors,illustrators and photographers may use theirown material elsewhere after publicationwithout permission. The Society asks that thefollowing note be included in any such use:‘First published in The Psychologist, vol. no. anddate. Published by The British PsychologicalSociety – see www.thepsychologist.org.uk.’ Asthe Society is a party to the Copyright LicensingAgency (CLA) agreement, articles in ThePsychologist may be photocopied by licensedinstitutional libraries for academic/teachingpurposes. No permission is required.Permission is required and a reasonable feecharged for commercial use of articles by athird party. Please apply to the Society inwriting. The publishers have endeavoured totrace the copyright holders of all illustrations inthis publication. If we have unwittingly infringedcopyright, we will be pleased, on being satisfiedas to the owner’s title, to pay an appropriate fee.

The BritishPsychologicalSociety

Welcome to a small selection of materialfrom the forthcoming issue of ThePsychologist, the monthly publication ofthe British Psychological Society.

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Welcome to The Psychologist, the monthly publication of The British PsychologicalSociety. It provides a forum for communication, discussion and controversy among allmembers 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.

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december 2009vol 22 no 12

The power of music Adrian North and DavidHargreaves introduce the specialissue with a look at how musicpsychology is changing in thedigital era 1012

According to Steven Pinker, ‘music isauditory cheesecake, an exquisiteconfection crafted to tickle thesensitive spots of at least six of ourmental faculties’. It packs a sensualwallop, but is of little use andinterest beyond that. Thecontributors to this special issuemay beg to differ, as we hear aboutthe impact of musical ability andinterest, or the lack of it. In additionto the articles, we hear about musicand change in ‘Careers’, musicalgenius in ‘Looking back’, and a jazzmusician of the year in ‘One on one’.

Finally, signing off for the year inwhich The Psychologist turned 21, Ihope that you think we have ‘comeof age’. Considering the remit andresources of a professional body’spublication, I believe we manage adecent presence, in print and online(the October issue has receivedmore than 250,000 readers). Butthere is always considerable roomfor improvement, and I would love tohear your thoughts on topics,people, formats and more that couldhelp us to develop further.

Dr Jon Sutton (Managing Editor)

THE ISSUE

The role of psychology in musiceducationSusan Hallam on the nature andimportance of musical ability

Music – shelter for the frazzled mind?Pam Heaton on music and autism

In search of the language of musicVictoria Williamson on two universals

Motivating musical learningJane Davidson, Robert Faulkner andGary McPherson on taking our naturalinterest in music to the next level

Lost in musicLauren Stewart on amusia, and the lightit shines on musical development

Eye on fiction: Unhappy in a unique waySteven Livingstone on Anna Karenina

forum 994positive psychology; academia and applied; Strictly Come Dancing; and more

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kidnap victims in the news; and the ethics of commenting on individuals

society 1044President’s column; research excellence framework; effort in testing; and more

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music in change; working in Bahrain; all the latest jobs, and how to advertise

looking back 1076creative genius in classical music, with Dean Keith Simonton

one on one 1080…with Raymond MacDonald

news 1002child welfare and immigration control; placement courses; reviewing primaryeducation; debt and mental health; retirement; immersive VR; and more

book reviews 1038change management; the dopaminergic mind; others in mind; masculinities; andwhat your stuff says about you

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Brennan, F.X. & Charnetski, C.J. (2000).Stress and immune system functionin a newspaper’s newsroom.Psychological Reports, 87, 218–222.

Hauser, M.D. & McDermott, J. (2003).The evolution of the music faculty: Acomparative perspective. NatureNeuroscience, 6, 663–668.

Kimata, H. (2003). Listening to Mozartreduces allergic skin whealresponses and in vitro allergen-

specific IgE production in atopicdermatitis patients with latex allergy.Behavioral Medicine, 29, 15–19.

Kirkpatrick, F.H. (1942). Music and thefactory worker. Psychological Record,5, 197–204.

Kirkpatrick, F.H. (1943a). Music inindustry. Journal of AppliedPsychology, 27, 268–274.

Kirkpatrick, F.H. (1943b). Take the mindaway. Personnel Journal, 22, 225–228.

Lai, H. & Good, M. (2005). Musicimproves sleep quality in olderadults. Journal of Advanced Nursing,49, 234–244.

MacDonald, R.A.R., Mitchell, L.A., Dillon,T. et al. (2003). An empiricalinvestigation of the anxiolytic andpain 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 ofthe effects of preferred music,arithmetic and humour on coldpressor pain. European Journal ofPain, 10, 343–351.

North, A.C. & Hargreaves, D.J. (2000).Musical preference during and after

The digital revolution has led tomusic being increasingly integratedinto the stream of daily life. This inturn has led to researchersshowing greater interest in theeffects of music on a wide range of thoughts and behaviours. Thisarticle looks at three potentialroles of music; namely, in self-injurious behaviours; in reducingpain and increasing immunity; andin promoting animal welfare.

The digital revolution means that themanner in which people obtain andlisten to music has changed radically

since the early 1990s. Legal and illegalwebsites make it possible to obtain amassive range of music within moments.These sites are complemented by apanoply of digital radio, TV and internet-based stations broadcasting 24/7. High-capacity portable digital music playersmean that we can, and often do, carry ourentire music library with us.

All this has an important implication.North et al. (2004) and Sloboda et al.(2001) produced quantitative evidencethat people’s everyday use of music is goal-directed – we use it to achieve a particularmood or state, to pass the time, to enhanceinterpersonal interactions, or any of manyother possible tasks. The sheer range ofmusic available to us at any point in oureveryday life means that, in the digital era,people have access to precisely the kind ofmusic that would help them to achievewhatever specific goals they are trying tomeet. This in turn has a furtherimplication for psychologists. If theopportunity widely exists to, and asignificant number of people actually do,use music to achieve a wide range of goals,there is a need for an applied psychologyof music.

In our recent book The Social andApplied Psychology of Music (North &Hargreaves, 2008) we attempted to mapout what this field might look like. Weargued that the digital revolution andsubsequent emphasis of music researcherson the implications of musical behaviourmeans that the paradigm in which many

conduct their research has shifted over thepast 20 years. During the 1970s and 1980s,research on listening to music wasdominated by cognitive issues, such asmemory, attention and understanding ofmusical syntax. It is tempting to view thisdominance as resulting from the less-contextualised manner in which listeningtypically occurred at the time. Under theseless-contextualised circumstances, themusic would, of course, more likely be thefocus of attention. So rather thanconsidering the social, external world, itmade more sense to focus on the listener’sinner mental world. Moreover, thiscognitive focus and lack of considerationof the interaction between musicalbehaviour and the context in which it tookplace led to highly reductionist,experimental procedures. This approachcontrasts sharply with much of thepresent-day research which, although itcertainly does not ignore cognitive factors,is primarily concerned with the reciprocalinfluence between these andcontextualised, real-life musicalbehaviours.

This special issue of The Psychologistlooks at musical ability; how and whypeople let music into their lives, and theimpact of musical proficiency (or a lack of it). It becomes clear that music isimportant to us; a source of pride,enjoyment, even solace. At least two of the articles here reflect the long-standinginterest within the field, dating back toAncient Greece, in clinical- and health-related issues among particularsubpopulations. For the remainder of our article, we address three other health-related implications of music that lieoutside those that have been studiedtraditionally.

Rock music and self-injuriousbehaviourThe rise of heavy rock with supposedlypro-suicide lyrics in the 1970s and 1980sled to legislation (e.g. attempts to bansales of CDs featuring a ‘parental advisory’sticker), public protest (e.g. by the

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North, A.C. & Hargreaves, D.J. (2008).The social and applied psychology ofmusic. Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress.

As music becomes more commonplaceand accessible, should society value itless or more?

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The power of musicAdrian C. North and David J. Hargreaves introduce the special issue with a look at how music psychology is changing in the digital era

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Parents’ Music Resource Center), andmany apparently bizarre local actions(e.g. the suspension of a Michigan highschool pupil for wearing a T-shirtpromoting Korn that featured no lyrics or words apart from the band’s name).The assumption on which these werebased, namely that the music causes self-injurious thoughts and actions, is not sofar-fetched as might seem, as severalstudies suggest at least a correlationbetween music and suicide. For example,Stack et al. (1994) found a link betweensuicide rates among teenage Americansand variations in subscriptions to a heavyrock magazine;and we (Northand Hargreaves,2006) havefound that fansof rock and rapwere morelikely thanothers toconsidersuicide and to self-harm.Other research,though, is lesssuggestive of a link. We havealso found(North &Hargreaves,2006) thatthoughts ofsuicide and self-harm precede aninterest in rock, so that the latter can’thave caused the former. Similarly, merelydescribing a song as ‘suicide-inducing’ or‘life-affirming’ leads listeners to perceive itas such (North & Hargreaves, 2005); bylabelling music as suicide-inducing,campaigners and legislators may behelping to create the problem they aim to eradicate. Other research (North &Hargreaves, 2006; Scheel & Westefeld,1999; Schwartz & Fouts, 2003; Stack etal., 1994) shows that the correlationbetween suicidal tendencies and aninterest in rock is mediated by family

background and self-esteem, which raisesthe issue of which of the latter is thebetter predictor of the former.

Pain, stress and immunityOther research paints a more positivepicture of the relationship between musicand health. Although music therapy isstereotyped as addressing psychologicalproblems, some recent studies havedemonstrated its role in treatingconventional physical disorders. The most convincing evidence comes fromStandley’s (1995) meta-analysis of 55

studies concerning the effectof music on 129 medicallyrelated variables. Podiatricpain, paediatric respiration,pulse, blood pressure and useof analgesia (in dentalpatients), pain, medication in paediatric surgery patientsand EMG all showed effectsizes over 2, and the meaneffect size over all 129variables was .88, meaningthat the impact of music wasalmost one standarddeviation greater thanwithout music.

Arguably the largest singlebody of literature concerns theimpact of music on chronicpain, pain experienced duringand after treatment, and painexperienced specifically bycancer patients and those

undergoing palliative care (e.g. MacDonaldet al., 2003; Mitchell et al., 2006). Researchsuggests that music can mediate pain inthese cases by distracting the patient’sattention from it and/or by increasing theirperceived control over the pain (since ifpatients believe that they have access tomusic as a means of pain control, then thisbelief itself decreases the aversiveness ofpain). Similar research on stress hasyielded the not entirely unsurprisingconclusion that it may be reduced bymusic; but also that the amount of stressreduction varies according to age, the

stressor, the listener’s musical preference,and their prior level of musical experience(e.g. Pelletier, 2004). More interestinglystill, this reduction in stress manifests itselfthrough physical measures, such asreduced levels of cortisol, and this has avery provocative further implication.Lower levels of stress are associated withgreater immunity to illness of course, andseveral studies have indicated effects ofmusic listening on physical measures ofimmune system strength, such as salivaryimmunoglobulin A (e.g. Brennan &Charnetski, 2000). Although themechanism by which this occurs is notwell understood, the implication is clear:music contributes directly to physicalhealth.

This allows us to make a strong casefor music therapy, since it has implicationsfor finance-related variables, such as theamount of drugs that patients require andthe amount of time they spend in hospital.Furthermore, pain, immunity and stressare implicated in such a range of physicalproblems that the health effects of musicmight be much wider-ranging than thepresent research suggests. Perhaps weshould not be surprised, for instance, thatboth Lai and Good (2005) and Tan (2004)showed that music can improve sleepquality, and that Kimata (2003) showedthat music can alleviate allergic responses,both of which have further healthimplications of their own.

Animal welfareThe impact of music on well-being maynot be limited to humans. Ethologicalresearch on the functions and learning of birdsong is well known; and there isresearch concerning human perception of music that has considered how non-humans do so (see Hauser & McDermott,2003; Panksepp & Bernatzky, 2002;Wallin et al., 2000). However, there is a growing body of evidence specificallyconcerning music and animal welfare.

Perhaps the clearest example isprovided by Wells et al. (2002), whoplayed classical music, heavy metal music,


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relaxation and exercise. AmericanJournal of Psychology, 113, 43–67.

North, A.C. & Hargreaves, D.J. (2005).Labelling effects on the perceiveddeleterious consequences of popmusic listening. Journal ofAdolescence, 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). Thesocial and applied psychology of music.Oxford: Oxford University Press.

North, A.C., Hargreaves, D.J. &Hargreaves, J.J. (2004). The uses ofmusic in everyday life. MusicPerception, 22, 63–99.

Panksepp, J. & Bernatzky, G. (2002).Emotional sounds and the brain: theneuro-affective foundations ofmusical appreciation. Behavioural

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 onsocial behaviors of mice, Musmusculus. 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 ofadolescents. Journal of Youth andAdolescence, 32, 205–213.

Sloboda, J.A., O’Neill, S.A. & Ivaldi, A.(2001). Functions of music ineveryday life: an exploratory studyusing the experience samplingmethod. Musicae Scientiae, 5, 9–32.

Labelling music as suicide-inducing may be helping to createthe problem



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pop music, human conversation, and acontrol to 50 dogs housed in an animalrescue shelter. The classical music wasarguably the most soothing, and it isinteresting that it led to the dogs spendingmore time resting, more time quiet, andless time standing. In contrast, arguably the least soothing music, heavy metal, ledto more time barking. In a similarunpublished study, we played fast- andslow-tempo music to dairy cows in theirwinter enclosures. Milk yield, indicative ofthe cows’ well-being, was higher in theslow than the fast music condition,suggesting that the slower music led tolower stress. Similarly, McCarthy et al.(1992) found that exposing rats to stress-inducing rock music could reduce theirability to heal wounds; and Peretti andKippschull (1990, p.51) played music tomice over two weeks and found that ‘(1)classical music produced more interaction,including aggression… and (5) rocktended to increase aggression’. Just asresearch on humans shows that we selectcalming music to reduce the impact of astressful environment on us (e.g. North &Hargreaves, 2000), so it seems that thissame calming music has just the sameeffect when played to non-humans.

Again the potential implications of thisare extensive and provocative. Mostobviously, what do we meanby ‘musical taste’ and‘expert composition’ whenwe are confronted withevidence that a dog canenjoy Beethoven? Does thepossibility that a cow maybe calmed by classicalmusic mean that it shouldn’t be thoughtsuitable for the dinner menu? Are thesekinds of effect widespread and identifiableamong a variety of species, such that allanimals respond similarly to the samemusic on the basis of the sameneurophysiology, and if so then would thismean that music should be regarded as lessor more of an art form than at present? Ofcourse, a cynic could claim that the effectsof music we have described here are in factjust functional behaviours that are not

truly ‘aesthetic’. That may well be true ofcourse, but as we have seen already, muchof humans’ everyday musical behaviour issimilarly functional. Is there really muchdifference between a tired human listeningto a soothing song on the car stereo during

the drive home, and adog in a shelter beingcalmed bybackground classicalmusic?

In conclusion,some might be tempted

to dismiss the appliedpsychology of music as ‘nothing new’,pointing out, for example, that musictherapy has a centuries-long tradition, orthat research on the impact of music onemployees’ productivity goes back to theproduction lines of the Second World War(e.g. Kirkpatrick, 1942, 1943a, 1943b). Wehave provided a few brief illustrations here,however, of how the applied psychology ofmusic has recently begun to demonstratenumerous and varied interactions betweenmusic and the context in which it is

experienced, such that it is breaking newground quickly. Similarly, it would be facileto characterise the field as trivial by askingwhy, for example, anybody should careabout what music will help to sell bakedbeans in a supermarket. In response, wewould argue that, as the research describedhere illustrates well, the appliedpsychology of music has direct financialimplications that safeguard music andmusicians from budget cuts imposed bypoliticians and accountants. It also has afar ‘meatier’ implication, namely that thefield, and those examples of it describedhere, call into question the very nature ofhow we conceive of ‘musical behaviour’.The implications of digitisation and ourchanging relationship with music meanthat our understanding of ‘musicalbehaviour’ and the very nature of musicpsychology itself must change also.

“the applied psychology of music has directfinancial implications”

I David Hargreavesis in the Centre forInternational Research onCreativity and Learning inEducation (CIRCLE),Roehampton University

I Adrian Northis in the School of LifeSciences, Heriot WattUniversity, Edinburgh [email protected]

Stack, S., Gundlach, J. & Reeves, J.L.(1994). The heavy metal subcultureand suicide. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 24, 15–23.

Standley, J. (1995). Music as atherapeutic intervention in medicaland dental treatment. In T. Wigram,B. Saperstone & R. West (Eds.) Theart and science of music therapy(pp.3–22). Langhorne, PA: Harwood.

Tan, L.P. (2004). The effects of

background music on quality of sleepin 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 auditorystimulation on the behaviour of dogshoused in a rescue shelter. AnimalWelfare, 11, 385–393.

What do we mean by ‘musical taste’ and ‘expert composition’ when a dog can enjoyBeethoven?


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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 meetsVronsky, a dashing cavalry officer, withwhom Dolly’s younger sister Kitty isinfatuated. The character of Levin isintroduced, a troubled and introspectiveyoung man, who is in love with Kitty, and who returns to his country estate indespair when his proposal is rejected byher. Vronsky, however, is fascinated byAnna, and recklessly pursues her. Sheinitially spurns him, but in the end shecannot deny that she has fallen in lovewith him.

The couple leave Russia together, butKarenin refuses to grant a divorce, unlessAnna renounces the right to see her son.She is miserable at having left her son inKarenin’s care, and returns in secret to seethe boy. Far from pacifying her, thismeeting only sharpens her despair.Vronsky is restless and misses his militarycareer, which he had to abandon to followher. Anna goes from disillusionment todisillusionment, becomes consumed withjealousy, and ultimately her life becomesintolerable to her. When she throwsherself under a train, she fulfills the

epigram of the novel:‘Vengeance is mine, and I shall repay.’ Vronsky isconsumed with remorse andenlists to fight the Turks, acourse of action equivalent tosuicide.

In counterpoint to thisdark, violent story, there is the

relationship of Kitty and Levin.After initially rejecting him, Kitty returnsto Levin, won over by his integrity andstrength of character. Levin is surely oneof the most rounded characters in fiction,and one Tolstoy drew on his owncharacter to create. His relationship withKitty, which is essentially a happy one, iscomplex and totally believable.

Anna’s story, on the other hand, isprimarily one of depression. One of thefew descriptions of Anna’s happinesscomes early in the novel. Recognising the young Kitty’s coquettish excitementbefore a ball, Anna says, ‘Oh yes, it isgood to be your age… I remember thatblue haze, like the haze on the mountainsin Switzerland. That haze which envelopseverything at the blissful time whenchildhood is just coming to and end, and its huge merry circle narrows to apath which one treads gaily yet withdread into life’s corridor, bright andsplendid as it appears… Who has notpassed through it?’

Anna will enter the bright andbeautiful path one last time to triumph at

In summer 2004 Oprah’s Book Clubhighlighted Anna Karenina. Oprah hadconfessed that she always had a fear of

reading Anna Karenina, mainly because ofits length. Hence, she and her viewersapproached their summer’s reading of AKlike an arduous long-distance run.Through the magic of the internet, I amable to re-live the show as though it wereyesterday…

Narrator: ‘They came from across theglobe, Oprah Book Clubbers ready to takeon the Anna Karenina 2004 challenge.Eight long sections, 817 pages, 23complicated Russian names. The onlything to fear was fear itself. They wouldbattle the elements, summer heat, busyfamily schedules, obstacles at every turn.Some would stumble, exhausted fromreading. But could they pick themselvesup and press on to the final chapter?Could they do it? Could they read AnnaKarenina in just one summer? Could theyconquer Tolstoy?’

Group of people, chanting in unison:‘Anna, Anna, Anna, Anna’.

The opening guest of the Book Clubepisode was a regular on the couch, TheMusic and the Passion himself, Mr BarryManilow. Manilow began by singing, tothe tune of ‘Copacabana’, ‘Her name wasAnna, Anna Karenina … The hottestbroad north of the Kremlin.’

But the final word of the show camefrom Megan Mullally, aka Karen from Willand Grace, who was most intrigued in herreading by Anna’s mental unravelling: ‘Ofcourse, now she’d just, like, take somePaxil and it’d all be good. But they didn’thave mood stabilisers back thenapparently.’

So, that is to say that Oprah and herarmy of Nike-shod women did indeed,chapter by chapter, ‘conquer’ Tolstoy,practically trampling him under their air-cushioned feet. And I would not like tosay that this is a bad thing, sincedoubtless Oprah brought AK to hundredsof people who would never haveotherwise attempted it. Oprah’s Book Club is off-air now, and her viewers arepatiently awaiting her instructions, but

the question remains: if Anna were alivetoday, in our more liberal society and with a prescription for an antidepressant,would things have worked out better for her?

Into life’s corridorWritten in instalments from 1873 to 1877in the periodical The Russian Messenger,AK still enjoys huge popularity and a highprofile in popular culture: curiously iteven pops up in Will and Grace, whereJennifer Lopez makes a guest appearancereading it on the subway. Its continuedsuccess is striking considering its lengthand complexity, asalluded to byOprah. If it is amasterpiece, it iscertainly not the‘flawless’masterpiece thatboth FyodorDostoyevsky andVladimir Nabokovdescribed it as, and the long passages onRussian peasant agricultural techniqueswill hardly be of interest to modernreaders, if indeed they were ever ofinterest. What, then, is the key to AK’senduring appeal?

Most of us, even those who have notread AK, may nonetheless be familiar withboth how it begins and how it ends. Thenovel opens with the famous and oft-quoted sentence, ‘All happy families arealike, but an unhappy family is unhappyin its own unique way.’ The novel endswith one of the most famous suicides inliterary history, and the inevitability ofAnna’s death only serves to make thetragedy of her life all the sadder.

Anna is married to Karenin, animportant government official, a dry andself-satisfied man 20 years her senior. Thefamous opening sentence refers to thefamily of Stephan Oblonsky, Anna’sbrother. Stephan has been cheating on hiswife with his children’s French governess,and his wife Dolly has found out. Oursympathies are with Anna from the very


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“Anna breaks what maybe our last taboo: she is awoman who abandonsher child for her lover”

Unhappy in a unique way Steven Livingstone on difficult paths and last taboos in Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina

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the ball, where she boldly dances themazurka with Vronsky. From thatbeautiful, blue-misted high point the pathindeed grows ever narrower for Anna. Butwould her path, as suggested by MeganMullally, be any easier to tread today?Certainly, in the 21st century, the apex of female achievement extends beyonddancing the mazurka, and she would nolonger be trapped a ballroom like a greatfluttering swan. There would be noboredom – with her intelligence, charmand beauty, it is easy to imagine Annain any of the hip, high-powered Sex inthe City jobs (Sex in the City,incidentally, being another show tohave referenced Anna Karenina. WhenCarrie is turned off by her Russianlover’s overly romantic gestures,Miranda advises her to tell him that‘He’s dating you, not Anna Karenina’).With her love of literature, it ispossible to see Anna writing aninspirational, Shirley Valentine-typestory, perhaps with the aid ofsympathetic psychologist, and – ifneed be – an appropriate SSRI. Paxilcould be seen as a more sophisticatedsubstitute for its 19th-centuryequivalent, the morphine Anna wasusing to self-medicate. She might evenget a six-figure advance and a slot onOprah’s couch.

The last tabooSo in answer to the question posed on Oprah: yes, thanks to the ways inwhich society has moved on, in thepresent day Anna’s story might haveended happily. But this answer ignoresthe fact that Anna breaks what may beour last taboo: she is a woman whoabandons her child for her lover.

In The Female Eunuch, publishedin 1970, Germaine Greer painted adevastatingly bleak portrait of familylife, in which she argued that womenshould not be afraid to walk out of theirmarriages, if necessary leaving theirchildren behind. ‘Mother is the dead heartof the family’, wrote Greer. But back inthe real world, high-profile women whoabandon their children face widespreaddisapproval. Princess Diana was only sixwhen her mother left to marry anotherman. She would later recollect that sheand her younger brother, Charles, criedthemselves to sleep together. The actorJohn Thaw’s mother ran off with anotherman, leaving him in charge of his youngerbrother, while his lorry-driver father wasaway. Thaw was seven. His widow, SheilaHancock, concluded that his abrasiveapproach to life stemmed from this earlyexperience. As a child, the artist Sam

Taylor-Wood remembers feeling bemusedthe day her mother handed her a notethat said, ‘Give this to your step-dadbecause I’m leaving you all.’ Taylor-Woodrecalls how ‘one day I saw her and shewas living three doors away. I saw theblind in the kitchen go up, and there shewas. Then she pulled it down again. I stillcan’t believe she was there. It wasextraordinary.’

Stories like this are painful, themothers seem selfish, unnatural and hard

to understand. It’s the child we feel sorryfor, not the mother.

To me, the exploration of thiscomplex and still contemporary issue isone of the keys to AK’s enduring success.In Anna, Tolstoy has created a characterwho we can understand and sympathisewith, and while the reader is left to makeup their own mind about the rights andwrongs of her actions, most will find ithard to either condemn or condone. Tothe casual reader, the novel may seem likenothing more than a tragic romance set inthe top tier of 19th-century Russianaristocratic society, and as such, Anna’sdifficulties have little connection to theway we live now. Look beyond thesurface, however, and we will see that themajor theme of the novel is the struggle

to find a moral and yet also fulfilling wayto lead one’s life. Anna is trapped in thedilemma of whether to choose her lovefor Vronsky, at the expense of abandoningher son, or to choose her love of her son,at the expense of her own happiness. Plusça change plus c’est pareil, as thepretentious and moralising CountessLydia Ivanovna might have put it.

The complexities involved in thepursuit of happiness are as relevant todayas they ever were, and pose a dilemma

that will be familiar topsychologists both in ourpersonal and professionallives. In fact, the principlethat in any system no onefactor guarantees successbut many guaranteefailure, has become knownas the Anna Kareninaprinciple, and is based onthe quotation from thenovel, ‘All happy familiesare alike, but an unhappyfamily is unhappy in itsown unique way.’

Writing in theTelegraph Magazine in2006, Judith Wenban-Smith, a charteredpsychologist with a specialinterest in children, wrote,‘Mothers who walk out ontheir children can nowsupport themselves andmaintain social profiles –they are neither beggarsnor pariahs – and that’s agood thing.’ It is true thattoday, Anna would nothave had to leave thecountry, as she does in thenovel. But that doesn’tmean children don’t get

hurt. ‘Children suffer morefrom the absence of mothers

than they do fathers, undoubtedly,’Wenban-Smith continues. ‘Almostinvariably, the mother has been the maincarer in infancy and it’s to mothers thatchildren have the strongest and mostsecure attachment.’ Mothers who leavecan have the best possible motives, but toa child, it boils down to one thing. ‘Theywill come to the conclusion that mummydidn’t love them enough, and that can bedevastating.’

So no, a prescription for Paxil wouldnot be the solution.


eye on fiction

I Steven Livingstone is a clinical psychologistat the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s [email protected]

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the psychologist december 2009

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