Review written by Ping Ho, MA, MPH, Founder & Director of Arts & Healing Initiative
Art Cure by Daisy Fancourt, PhD, Professor of Psychobiology and Epidemiology at University College London.
This landmark book weaves together a cornucopia of scientific evidence to make a compelling case for the protective and healing impact of the arts. Dr. Fancourt, a prolific expert in both micro and macro approaches to arts research, digests the findings with helpful analogies and even offers daily recommended dosages for optimal and enduring outcomes in health and mental health. This book comes closest to articulating the values upon which Arts & Healing Initiative was founded and the strategies we have implemented.
In Art Cure, Dr. Fancourt introduces each major domain of “dis-ease” in mind and body with a case example of how the arts can help the healing process, from biological and psychological perspectives. She is adroit at explaining scientific research accessibly and meaningfully, noting the “active ingredients” in various art forms that catalyze healing. The book presents both the “how” and the “why” behind the healing power of the arts in a balanced view that also addresses weaknesses in study findings.
Readers will learn how the arts activate pleasure responses in the brain when anticipating, witnessing, or actively engaging in the arts. Dr. Fancourt explores the important role of the arts in enhancing mental health through identity, purpose, inner awareness, emotion regulation, coping skills, and prosocial behavior. She analyzes and interprets research on how the arts can protect cognitive health and aid in neurological recovery, strengthen cardiovascular and respiratory function, enhance the immune system, reduce anxiety and boost surgical outcomes, decrease pain and dependency upon pain medication, improve manifestations of gene expression, and extend healthy aging and longevity.
Art Cure explains how the arts can mitigate the physiological impacts of distress and help us thrive from cradle to grave.