Trauma - MUSIC PRESCRIPTION - James Rhodes

 'By now we're all familiar with the idea of music as therapy. For James Rhodes, however, music can be equivalent - at times even preferable - to  medication in the management of mental health. "Obviously, I am in favour of medication when it is necessary to save lives," says the 49-year-old British-Spanish classical pianist, when I meet him at Peregrine's, an upmarket piano shop in Clerkenwell, central London. "I was on medication and it genuinely saved my life. What I'm not in favour of is medication as a kind of easy option instead of doing other things that will also have the same effect. And there's no question that music [can]." 

 Manía, Rhodes's new album, is driven by that philosophy. Traversing swaths of classical territory, from JS Bach to 20th-century Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera, it is an attempt to profile the therapeutic properties of music from all angles, "I've always loved this idea of prescribing pieces," says Rhodes. As someone who has struggled with his own mental health, he says he has selected works that "accompany me and my insomnia, my anxiety, my desperation and my fears in the middle of the night"'. p.13.

My source:
Nepilová, H. Music on prescription, Arts, Life&Arts, FTWeekend. 8-9 March 2025. p.13.

INDIVIDUAL

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      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 

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GROUP

MANiA	DRUG PRESCRIPTION ARTS PRESCRIPTION ...
SOCIAL PRESCRIBING

(ii) What sort of field is 'nursing'?

Mathematics without Apologies:
Portrait of a Problematic Vocation

Harris quickly differentiates between pure and applied - practical mathematics. Nursing can claim mathematical tenure in being a constant. A constantly problematic vocation for governments worldwide. Temporarily recognised for its criticality, in terms of the population's dependence on nursing by the COVID pandemic. The global nursing workforce while often a political football in its host country, is in intensive care amid demographic change and policy imperatives. 

Neither maths/mathematics, numeracy, nor arithmetic are indexed in:

Curriculum Development In Nursing Education (4th. Edition).

If present, such detail might suggest a concept-based curricula approach, but the dichotomies of qualitative-quantitative and subjective-objective work to good effect; performing as per the axes of Hodges' model. Perhaps, there are nonetheless, more similarities between mathematics and nursing than an axial first-glance might suggest?

I've noted (if not lamented) the fall in prominence of nursing theory, models of care in nurse education and practice. Within the corpus of books the phrases are still common in terms of usage:

It seems that 'models of care' are not the sole preserve of nursing and health disciplines. These models are also defined by management consultancies*, care commissioners, economists, philosophers and policy makers. Hodges' model itself can be used to argue this is a legitimate activity, desirable and to be expected. 

An admittedly small sample, but here in NW England student nurses I encounter struggle to recall 'a' model, or theory that has caught their attention. With discussion, they realise they have been to this abstract place before. The attention on models and theory does not appear to match the focus afforded in North America. The political background of national health systems provision, the state of development of health services and systems and education make a huge difference between nursing academia globally, even as we strive to be one-family. 

Harris writes of the quest narrative in mathematics. There are problems solvers and the theory builders in mathematics. Tenured mathematicians seek the 'golden goose'. Hodges' model is the quest here: a golden goose in cognitive form that all can possess with requisite basic literacy and explanation. While as noted in (i) mathematics is a relaxed field (Preface, p.xi), it seems nursing theory is a (largely) deserted field. Ironically, seeking person-centredness, this is where Hodges' model begins - a necessarily conceptually deserted field that offers only structure but with the prospect of unconditional positive regard.

Harris, M. (2015) Mathematics without Apologies: Portrait of a Problematic Vocation. Princeton University Press.

*Reimagining the nursing workload: Finding time to close the workforce gap. https://mck.co/43tMB7v
via @McKinsey [A post may follow.]

See also: 'commissioning'

'nursing theory'

What sort of field is 'nursing'? (i)

. . . It is NOT 'relaxed'.

My copy of Harris (2015) is secondhand, £8.50 from 'Green Ink' in Hay-on-Wye last November. 

Apparently, the (professional - high-level) study of mathematics is a relaxed field. McCleary reviews the book and the good, truth, and beauty of mathematics; 'relaxed field' relates to the latter:

Mathematics without Apologies:
Portrait of a Problematic Vocation

"That leaves beauty, the deepest source for Hardy, and the most challenging motivation for mathematical activity. Challenging because it calls into question how external support of mathematics is justified. Hardy tells us that “a mathematician, like a painter or poet, is a maker of patterns.” Throwing mathematicians in with the painters and poets leads to justification of mathematics as an art. Harris situates his discussion of beauty in the notion of play. Play needs to take place in a “relaxed field,” a notion introduced by ethologist Gordon Burghardt to describe animal behavior when not preoccupied with food, mating, territory, or predators—'the opposite of stress.'"

John McCleary, Book Review, NOTICES OF THE AMS VOLUME 65, NUMBER 10 pp.1280-1283. https://www.ams.org/journals/notices/201810/rnoti-p1280.pdf 

Talk of absolutes is common in mathematics. There is absolutely no mathematician involved in the writing of this post and others. That said, I have been privileged to work in a 'relaxed' manner.* When I trained mental health and then general nursing, we were part of the 'numbers' on the duty-rota. Your presence was not just a matter of learning, there were concrete things - tasks - to do. Completing the Community Psychiatric Nursing Certificate course 1987-8, involved a secondment to another community team (thank you Bolton!). My caseload was left to the support of colleagues, so I could concentrate on the course. A course in which Brian Hodges (not Wilfred Hodges - the  logician) taught his eponymous model. Post-Project 2000 with nurse education an undergraduate pursuit, students were designated supernumerary. Student nurse finances are precarious, worthy of a post in itself. 

If relaxed and stress are opposites, nurses would seek to be 'relaxed'** suffice to have the time and resources to deliver care safely, professionally and to a high standard. Adequate time + resources also brings a dividend: person-centredness, health promotion and education, preventing relapse. As it stands, however, for nurses be they students or qualified, nursing is far from relaxed.

tbc... ii

Harris, M. (2015) Mathematics without Apologies: Portrait of a Problematic Vocation. Princeton University Press.

*But without the charisma Harris describes.

**The notion of slack resource could be applied, space for creativity and innovation in assessment, planning, interventions (case formulation) and evaluation.

See also: 'Four Fields'