Choosing a career is one of the most important decisions we make in our lifetime. Career choice is more than working to earn a living but also an important window into how we identify and feel about ourselves. There are multiple issues involved in every career choice, particularly in the pursuit of a career in music performance. Influenced by her hybrid background in music performance, psychology, and psychoanalysis, Julie Jaffee Nagel addresses the joys and challenges of career choice in music, with a specific focus upon the classical performing musician. She addresses a wide range of pressing topics related to such a career choice at a time when jobs and income for musicians are diminishing and COVID-19 has had a monumental, long-term impact on the arts. This includes feelings of burnout, career change and redirection, the need for self-care, mental health issues related to the lack of jobs and income, and the oftentimes crippling standards of professional performing musicians. In addition, Nagel also points to potential opportunities and advocates new roles for musicians in the wake of a transformed music industry and society. Despite the numerous challenges performing musicians face in their careers, music can play a powerful role in mental life and society, helping us cope with the ravages and losses of the pandemic and other important events, and this can serve as much inspiration and reinvigorate professional musicians questioning the purpose of their career. All of these themes are developed through stories, clinical examples, anecdotes, research data, and personal reflection.
Julie Jaffee Nagel, Ph.D. is a psychologist, psychoanalyst, and musician. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School, The University of Michigan, and The Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute, and author of Managing Stage Fright (OUP, 2017). She has given conference presentations for The American Psychoanalytic Association, Music Teachers National Association, College Music Society, and National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy. She is in private practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan and her website is www.julienagel.net.
Prelude Acknowledgments Chapter 1 Work Chapter 2 Musicians and Money in the Wake of the Pandemic Some Financial Facts: A Wake Up Call What Do Musicians Contribute? The Musician as "Product" Creative Responses to the Pandemic Why Should You Care About Music? Your Money or Your Life Chapter 3 Musical Development and Psychological Development Erik Erikson: Development Over a Lifetime "Ratios": Life as a Balancing Act Carolyn's Monkey Erikson's Eight Stages for the Musician Early Stages (ages 1-4) Middle Stages (ages 5-7) Late Stage: Stage 8 (ages 65+) Chapter 4 The Meaning of Money and "Psychic Income" Early Issues about Giving and Receiving Attention and Money: Symbolic Nourishment What Do Money and Stage Fright Share in Common? How Much are You Worth? Patrons and Angels Buying Love Nourishing Starving Artists Chapter 5 Four Types of Personality Who Seek Music Careers The Identity Status Interview The Four Categories of the ISI What Does ISI Data Explain? Ken: Integrating Past and Present Conclusion: Research and Clinical Work Chapter 6 Pursuit of Perfection The Disillusionment of Omnipotence Growing Pains and Emotional Growth Pursuit of Perfection: All the Right Notes Ms. G Mr. D Resolution of Disillusionment: Grieving, Mourning, and Moving Forward Chapter 7 The Golden Allure of Celebrity: Reflections on Boundary Crossings in Psychoanalysis and Music Planning for the Big Meeting Temptations Deeply Disappointed The #MeToo Movement and Music Education A "Perfect Storm": Private Music Lessons A Rescue through "Love" A Higher Cost for Education Institutional Collusions The Bad Apple Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree Treatment Issues Coda Chapter 8 Rethinking Music Education Asked and (as Yet) Unanswered Questions Teaching Talented Musicians: The University and Conservatory Nurturing Healthy Musicians How to Destroy Creativity in Music Students: A Paraphrase of Otto Kernberg Educating Healthy People Who Are Musicians A Healthy Music Profession Chapter 9 Music and Mind Outside the Box The Value of Music: Past and Future The Impact of Music: Historical Precedents Musicians and Mental Health Professionals as Non-Traditional First Responders Music and Therapy in and beyond the Consulting Room Beyond the Teaching Studio and Concert Hall Has Anything Good Resulted from the Pandemic? A Conclusion and a Beginning About the Author
Julie Nagel knows the field as a trained musical performer and a practicing clinician who is an international authority on work inhibition and performance block. There is none better! -- Peter Loewenberg, history and political psychology, professor emeritus, University of California Los Angeles
