Turning Despair into Joy in Music, Psychiatry, and Society

PSYCHIATRIC VIEWS ON THE DAILY NEWS

“Resistance is the secret of joy.”

- Alice Waker from the novel Possessing the Secret of Joy

Over this past weekend, my wife and I had the opportunity to go to New York. One of the reasons was to see the new Metropolitan Opera “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay,” adapted from the 600+ pages of the Pulitzer Prize novel of the same name, written by Michael Chabon. It was centered on Kavalier and Clay, cousins who together face the challenges of escaping Prague in 1939 and finding a career, respectively. The results are mixed at best, from deep despair to some posttraumatic joy over the ensuing years of World War II and the Holocaust.

It was published on September 19, 2000, at the turn of the new millennia, with all its attendant fears of the future. However, the developing COVID-19 pandemic was not one of the predicted concerns. Due to the social psychiatric ramifications of the pandemic, we began our weekly video series on October 7, 2020. Instead, perhaps, it was the politics of the book that had some prophetic aspects, as the world has evolved into more regional wars and autocratic leaders.

On return to Milwaukee, we were able to see a magnificent performance of Beethoven’s Choral Symphony #9, which creatively includes excerpts from Schiller’s poem, “Ode to Joy.” As if possessed, it was conducted by Ken David Masur, who grew up in Germany of both German and Japanese ancestry, connecting to the same 2 countries that started and lost World War II, but have evolved into current peace and prosperity.

Beethoven’s 9th was completed while he was completely deaf. Imagine composing a complex and innovative 60-minute symphony while unable to hear the music! In the last 200 years, the symphony has brought joy around the world, often connecting with the collapse of authoritarian regimes, including being played while the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.

In clinical psychiatry, despair turns into joy not infrequently. From the ravages of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, chronic substance abuse, and posttraumatic stress disorder can come recovery, more freedom of the mind, and joy.

Perhaps when the war in the Mideast ends, Beethoven’s 9th will again mark the occasion of turning collective despair into celebratory joy. However, right now, tomorrow is the 2nd anniversary of the invasion of Israel by Hamas and the ensuing ongoing devastating war. It also comes at a time when the despair is being challenged with the hope of a new peace plan that is being negotiated at the time of this writing. This year, tomorrow is also the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which celebrates agriculture and the journey out of slavery in Egypt to the “promised land” of Israel.

Before leaving New York, I happened to buy a used compact disc of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, not knowing we would actually hear it live in a magnificent performance by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra the next day. Meaningfully in a serendipity over time, the orchestra is the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, founded in 1998 by the Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim and the late Palestinian academic Edward Said. Now based in Spain, its goal was to promote understanding between Israelis and Palestinians, which is actually item #18 on President Trump’s 20-point peace plan.

In regard to New York, Frank Sinatra wrote the popular song “New York, New York.” It has a line:

“If I can make it there

I’m gonna make it anywhere.”

Perhaps Beethoven thought something like:

“If I can make this symphony

It will bring joy anywhere.”

I’d say:

“If peace can come to the Middle East,

It can happen most anywhere.”

Dr Moffic is an award-winning psychiatrist who specialized in the cultural and ethical aspects of psychiatry and is now in retirement and retirement as a private pro bono community psychiatrist. A prolific writer and speaker, he has done a weekday column titled “Psychiatric Views on the Daily News” and a weekly video, “Psychiatry & Society,” since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. He was chosen to receive the 2024 Abraham Halpern Humanitarian Award from the American Association for Social Psychiatry. Previously, he received the Administrative Award in 2016 from the American Psychiatric Association, the one-time designation of being a Hero of Public Psychiatry from the Speaker of the Assembly of the APA in 2002, and the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in 1991. He presented the third Rabbi Jeffrey B. Stiffman lecture at Congregation Shaare Emeth in St. Louis on Sunday, May 19, 2024. He is an advocate and activist for mental health issues related to climate instability, physician burnout, and xenophobia. He is now editing the final book in a 4-volume series on religions and psychiatry for Springer: Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, Christianity, and now The Eastern Religions, and Spirituality. He serves on the Editorial Board of Psychiatric Times.