IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jchals/v9y2018i1p18-d139677.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analogies between Heavy Metal Music and the Symptoms of Mental Illness

Author

Listed:
  • David G. Angeler

    (Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 7050, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
    School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68583-0961, USA)

Abstract

This paper builds a link between isolated domains within the arts and sciences, specifically between music and psychiatry. An analogous model is presented that associates heavy metal music with bipolar disorder, a form of mental illness. Metal music consists of a variety of subgenres with distinct manifestations of song, rhythm, instrumentation, and vocal structure. These manifestations are analogous to the symptomatology of bipolar disorder, specifically the recurrent episodes of (hypo)mania and depression. Examples of songs are given which show these analogies. Besides creating a subjective link between apparently unconnected knowledge domains, these analogies could play a heuristic role in clinical applications and education about the disorder and mental illnesses at large.

Suggested Citation

  • David G. Angeler, 2018. "Analogies between Heavy Metal Music and the Symptoms of Mental Illness," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-9, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jchals:v:9:y:2018:i:1:p:18-:d:139677
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/9/1/18/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/9/1/18/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shana M. Sundstrom & David G. Angeler & Ahjond S. Garmestani & Jorge H. García & Craig R. Allen, 2014. "Transdisciplinary Application of Cross-Scale Resilience," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(10), pages 1-24, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. João Cascalheira, 2019. "Territoriality and the organization of technology during the Last Glacial Maximum in southwestern Europe," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(12), pages 1-32, December.
    2. David G. Angeler, 2020. "Biodiversity in Music Scores," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jchals:v:9:y:2018:i:1:p:18-:d:139677. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.