A Doctor Writes: Insights from medicine and psychiatry enhance a new study, suggests Barry Millington

Reviews of Paul Dawson-Bowling, The Wagner Experience and its Meaning to Us (Old Street Publishing, 2013); Raymond Furness, Richard Wagner (Reaktion Books, 2013).

March 2014, Volume 8, Number 1, 79–85.

Surprisingly few books about Wagner deal with the music in any detail, though they may bring insights from other disciplines. Paul Dawson-Bowling, in his two-volume study of Wagner and his works, not only writes about the music in considerable detail but also brings to bear a lifetime’s knowledge and experience in general medical practice, enhanced by insights from psychiatry.